The Police of Finland is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and divided into the National Police Board, two national units and 11 local police departments. Within departments, there is a division between uniformed patrol police (järjestyspoliisi, "order police") and criminal investigation (rikospoliisi, "criminal police"). The function of each police department is to maintain general law and order, prevent crime, investigate crime and other events that threaten public order and safety, carry out traffic control and surveillance, and promote traffic safety.

The Police University College (Poliisiammattikorkeakoulu, Polamk) is the national university-level unit responsible for general police training, research and development.[2] The National Bureau of Investigation (Keskusrikospoliisi, KRP) is the national unit tasked with fighting international, organised and serious crime.

The Finnish Security Intelligence Service (Suojelupoliisi, Supo) specializes in the prevention of security threats of the State, such as counterintelligence and terrorism.[3] Supo was an agency under police administration, but was transferred under the direct control of the Ministry of the Interior in 2016.[4]

The Finnish Border Guard have police powers in border zones; likewise, Finnish Customs have police powers when dealing with arriving persons and goods. Within their fields of work, the Customs and Border Guard officers have most police powers. In the Customs, the power to arrest is delegated to the level of senior customs inspectors. In the Border Guard, the power to arrest is delegated to the level of border control detachments commander.[5] The Border Guard is also responsible for search and rescue and maritime search and rescue. The Customs may utilize all investigative police powers, with the exception of the use of deep-cover personnel and sting operations.[6] The Border Guard may use almost all investigative powers. The Customs also occasionally enforces laws such as fuel taxes and vehicle traffic-worthiness, without connection to imported goods.

Police, Customs and Border Guard have close inter-agency cooperation.

PCB (police, border guard and customs) is a scheme for cooperation between the police, border guard and customs. In a PCB patrol, there is a patrol from two of the agencies: For instance, two officers from customs and two from police – who then get acquainted with each other's tasks and expertise. Another form of PCB cooperation is in criminal intelligence – whereby the different disciplines share the same intelligence and situation centers.

The Finnish Defence Forces have provost duties and jurisdiction within military installations. The Defence Forces also have the right to investigate all military crimes and most crimes committed by service-men against non-civilians. In addition, the Defence Forces have the right to conduct counter-espionage and counter-sabotage activities related to national defence. However, the Finnish Security Intelligence Service conducts actual criminal investigations of state security-related crimes within the Defence Forces. Military unit commanders have jurisdiction of investigations over minor infractions.[7][8]

The power to arrest is delegated to the company commander level. More serious crimes are investigated by the investigative section of the Finnish Defence Command or by the military attorneys of lower command levels. Security-related military police activities and all technical surveillance activities are carried out by the investigative section of the Defence Command. The Defence Forces do not have the right to conduct wiretaps or other similar measures on Finnish civilian telecommunications.[7][8]

The police may request assistance in performing their duties from the Defence Forces or other agencies – for example when special equipment or competency is required. The operation itself remains under the command of the police. Military units (brigades) usually keep a company under readiness for assistance at all times; the turn rotates among companies and requires them to forego regular leave. In practice, the Defence Forces have assisted in disposal of explosives, provided Pasi armored vehicles for operations against heavily armed suspects (e.g. the Kauhajoki shooting), and conscript manpower for searching missing persons in terrain and in supporting the 2015 refugee crisis.[9] Finnish military police and investigative command would assume a more extensive set of tasks in wartime.

Municipal parking inspectors, train conductors and ticket inspectors, and fishing inspectors have limited police powers. The Ministry of the Interior has the authority to grant police powers to any person for a specific task and to the degree necessary.

The Police of Finland is supported by two voluntary organisations: Vapepa, the voluntary rescue service (Finnish: Vapaaehtoinen pelastuspalvelu), and the SRVA, the assistance organisation for large game situations (Finnish: suurriistavirka-apu). Neither organisation uses police powers during assistance missions.

The most typical support mission for the Vapepa is a search mission. The organisation is composed of volunteers trained in the search of missing persons, who can be alerted by the local police for a search with a reasonably short response time.[10] For example, in a recent case, the person was reported missing at 4 PM, the Vapepa search operation started with 42 volunteers at 7 PM, and continued at 7 AM the following morning, after being stopped at 4 AM, with more than 100 volunteers.[11][12] In addition, the Vapepa may support police in communications or first-response logistics and psychological care.[13]

The SRVA is a voluntary activity organised by the semi-governmental hunting district associations (Finnish: riistanhoitoyhdistys). The SRVA personnel are experienced hunters trained for police assistance, and they provide hounds and armed hunters to track and euthanise large game that has been wounded in a traffic accident or that police has decided to euthanise to prevent danger to human safety.[14]

1.
Police of Finland
–
The Police of Finland is a government agency responsible for general police and law enforcement matters in Finland. The Police of Finland is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and consists of the National Police Board, on October 1,2003, the Public Order Act went into effect, standardizing public ordinances throughout the country. The official insignia of the Finnish Police consists of the head of the Finnish Lion placed at the place of the handle of a two-edged sword. The police is divided into departments, which encompass the area of multiple municipalities, municipalities do not have police forces of their own. Local police departments are organized into uniformed patrol police and criminal investigation police, local police also processes licenses and permits such as gun licenses, national ID cards and passports, and furthermore, enforces immigration decisions by the Finnish Immigration Service. Local police must also be notified when organizing public events that may significantly influence local public security, driving licenses have been issued by the local police, but from 2016, driving licenses will be issud by Trafi. Alarm services are operated by Emergency Response Centres managed by the Ministry of the Interior in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs, the National Bureau of Investigation is responsible for major criminal investigations and certain types of specialist services such as fingerprint recognition. The NBI was formed in 1954 to assist the other police elements in efforts against crime. A special concern of the NBI is white-collar crime, to carry out its mission, the force has advanced technical means at its disposal, and it maintains Finlands fingerprint and identification files. The NBI is not apart of the police, but is a separate law enforcement agency which assists local police with investigations. The Police University College in Tampere is responsible for training, research. The Finnish Security Intelligence Service is responsible for security and the investigation of related crimes. The Supo was moved directly under the Ministry of the Interior in 2016, the National Traffic Police was folded into the local police in 2013, thus local police is also responsible for highway patrol. Originally, local districts were very small and had limited resources, so a separate mobile police organization was founded for riot control, alcohol law enforcement. Political reliability and independence from local strongmen was also important because of the threat from fascists, indeed, ståhlberg back to his home after he was kidnapped by the Lapua Movement. The organized later evolved into a highway patrol, however, because of mergers, local police departments had become larger. Police Rapid Response Unit, also known as Bear Group, is an armed response unit. It is officially part of the National Bureau of Investigation, in June 2008, the Finnish police established a Police Incident Response Team tasked with improving the prevention, detection and management of serious information security incidents

2.
Vanity plates
–
The owner of the vehicle pays extra money to have his own choice of numbers or letters, usually portrays a recognizable phrase, slogan, or abbreviation on their plate. Sales of vanity plates are often a significant source of revenue for North American provincial, in some jurisdictions, such as the Canadian province of British Columbia, vanity plates have a different color scheme and design. Vanity plates are issued by state and the District of Columbia. Quebec was scheduled to start offering vanity plates in 2015, leaving Newfoundland, however, Quebec was not able to start offering vanity plates, reportedly because of computer issues.7 million vehicles with personalized vanity license plates. The survey ranked jurisdictions by vanity plate penetration rate, which is the percentage of registered vehicles that are vanitized. Virginia has the highest U. S. vanity plate penetration rate, followed by New Hampshire, Illinois, Nevada, Montana, Maine, Connecticut, New Jersey, North Dakota, Texas had the lowest vanity plate penetration rate. Ontario had the highest Canadian vanity plate penetration rate, followed by Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Yukon, British Columbia had the lowest vanity plate penetration rate, Quebec does not issue vanity plates. In some states and provinces, optional plates can also be vanity plates and are a choice of motorists who want a more distinctive personalized plate, however, the maximum number of characters on an optional plate may be lower than on a standard-issue plate. For example, the U. S. state of Virginia allows up to 7.5 characters on a standard-issue plate, in some states, a motorist may also check the availability of a desired combination online. All U. S. states and Canadian provinces that issue vanity plates have a blue list of vanity plates that contains banned words, phrases, or letter/number combinations. The U. S. state of Florida, for example, has banned such plates as PIMPALA, while the state of New York bans any plates with the letters FDNY, NYPD, or GOD, among others. Often the ban is to eliminate confusion with plates used on vehicles or plates used on other classes of vehicles. State DMVs have received complaints about offensive vanity plates, in this case, the DMV can revoke a plate if it is deemed offensive, even if it had been previously approved. The blue list may be limited to genuine vanity plates, not covering computer-generated accidents, for example, Floridas famous A55 RGY license plate looks like ASS ORGY. In some cases, a plate that has already been issued can be recalled and stripped from the owner if the plates message is found to be in violation after it has been issued. Some notable cases are, In 2002, a Florida man was stripped of his plates that read ATHEIST, a Virginia woman lost her plates that read HAISSEM. In 2002, a Washington residents request for the plate GOTMILF was approved, another factor leading to the cancellation was that the applicant gave a misleading meaning of GOTMILF when applying for the plate. In 2007, a South Dakota woman nearly lost her vanity plates that read MPEACHW, in 2008, a Virginia resident had his vanity plate revoked after having held the plates registration for several years

3.
Finnish Border Guard
–
The Finnish Border guard is the national security agency responsible for enforcing the security of Finlands borders. The Border Guard has police and investigative powers in immigration matters, the Border Guard has search and rescue duties, both maritime and inland. The Guard operates SAR helicopters that are used in inland SAR, in assistance of a local fire. The border guards active duty personnel consists of 3,800 men and women, the Finnish Border Guard has also 500 conscripts who are not used for border control during peace time. The mobilized strength of the Border Guard is 12600 servicemen, the Finnish-Russian border is actively monitored and patrolled by the Border Guard. There is a separate Finnish Customs agency, and immigration is handled also by the local police, PTR cooperation is well-developed and allows the authorities to conduct each others duties as necessary. Main duties of the Finnish Border Guard, Protecting the land borders, passport control at border crossing points, airports and ports. First line of defence against territorial invasions Rescue operations, provide aid to other authorities such as the Fire Department in case of unusual events like wild fires. Investigation of crimes pertaining to border security, aiding Police forces in civil duties such as crowd control and riot control. Military operations pertaining to internal security, Customs control in the minor border crossing points without customs authorities. Training of conscripts for wartime duty, long range patrols and guerrilla tactics behind enemy lines. For the discharge of its duties, the Border Guard has limited powers in the areas where it operates. It can, for example, seize and arrest persons and conduct searches in apartments and cars pursuant to same legislation as the police, when investigating a crime. However, the power to arrest a person has been delegated only to the officers of a border control detachments. Border Guard helicopters have also used to assist police and rescue authorities in various missions. The Border Guard also has the power to keep order in its own facilities. For the execution of its military exercises, any officer with the rank of Captain can close an area temporarily. The Border Guard is responsible for enforcing the 3–5 km border zone towards Russia, administrative units are responsible for the functions of the Border Guard

4.
Finnish Defence Forces
–
The Finnish Defence Forces are responsible for the defence of Finland. A universal male conscription is in place, under which all men above 18 years of age serve for 165,255 or 347 days, alternative non-military service and volunteer service by women are possible. Finland is the only non-NATO EU country bordering Russia, finlands official policy states that a wartime military strength of 230,000 personnel constitutes a sufficient deterrent. The army consists of a mobile field army backed up by local defence units. Finlands defence budget equals approximately 2.8 billion euros or 1.3 percent of GDP, the voluntary overseas service is highly popular and troops serve around the world in UN, NATO and EU missions. Homeland defence willingness against an enemy is at 76%, one of the highest rates in Europe. Fighting between the White Guards and the Red Guards had already broken out about a week before around Viipuri, after winning the Civil War, the Finnish peacetime army was organized as three divisions and a brigade by professional German officers. It became the structure for the next 20 years. The coast was guarded by former czarist coastal fortifications and ships taken as prizes of war, the Air Force had already been formed in March 1918, but remained a part of the Army and did not become a fully independent fighting force until 1928. The new government instituted conscription after the Civil War and also introduced a mobilization system, when the Soviets invaded in November 1939, the Finns defeated the Red Army on numerous occasions, including at the crucial Battle of Suomussalmi. These successes were in part thanks to the application of motti tactics. While the Finns ultimately lost the war and were forced to agree to the Moscow Peace Treaty, during the war the Finns lost 25,904 men, while Soviet losses were 167,976 dead. Finland fought in the Continuation War alongside Germany from 1941 to 1944, thanks to German aid, the army was now much better equipped, and the period of conscription had been increased to two years, making possible the formation of sixteen infantry divisions. The demobilization and regrouping of the Finnish Defense Forces were carried out in late 1944 under the supervision of the Soviet-dominated Allied Control Commission. Following the Treaty of Paris in 1947, which imposed restrictions on the size and equipment of the forces and required disbandment of the Civic Guard. The reorganization resulted in the adoption of the brigade -in place of the division- as the standard formation, for the first two decades after the Second World War, the Finnish Defence Forces relied largely on obsolete wartime material. Defence spending remained minimal until the early 1960s, during the peak of the Cold War, the Finnish government made a conscious effort to increase defence capability. This resulted in the commissioning of new weapons systems and the strengthening of the defence of Finnish Lapland by the establishment of new garrisons in the area

5.
Finland
–
Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in the geographical region of Fennoscandia, which also includes Scandinavia. Finlands population is 5.5 million, and the majority of the population is concentrated in the southern region,88. 7% of the population is Finnish people who speak Finnish, a Uralic language unrelated to the Scandinavian languages, the second major group are the Finland-Swedes. In terms of area, it is the eighth largest country in Europe, Finland is a parliamentary republic with a central government based in the capital Helsinki, local governments in 311 municipalities, and an autonomous region, the Åland Islands. Over 1.4 million people live in the Greater Helsinki metropolitan area, from the late 12th century, Finland was an integral part of Sweden, a legacy reflected in the prevalence of the Swedish language and its official status. In the spirit of the notion of Adolf Ivar Arwidsson, we are not Swedes, we do not want to become Russians, let us therefore be Finns, nevertheless, in 1809, Finland was incorporated into the Russian Empire as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland. In 1906, Finland became the nation in the world to give the right to vote to all adult citizens. Following the 1917 Russian Revolution, Finland declared itself independent, in 1918, the fledgling state was divided by civil war, with the Bolshevik-leaning Reds supported by the equally new Soviet Russia, fighting the Whites, supported by the German Empire. After a brief attempt to establish a kingdom, the became a republic. During World War II, the Soviet Union sought repeatedly to occupy Finland, with Finland losing parts of Karelia, Salla and Kuusamo, Petsamo and some islands, Finland joined the United Nations in 1955 and established an official policy of neutrality. The Finno-Soviet Treaty of 1948 gave the Soviet Union some leverage in Finnish domestic politics during the Cold War era, Finland was a relative latecomer to industrialization, remaining a largely agrarian country until the 1950s. It rapidly developed an advanced economy while building an extensive Nordic-style welfare state, resulting in widespread prosperity, however, Finnish GDP growth has been negative in 2012–2014, with a preceding nadir of −8% in 2009. Finland is a top performer in numerous metrics of national performance, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, a large majority of Finns are members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, though freedom of religion is guaranteed under the Finnish Constitution. The first known appearance of the name Finland is thought to be on three rune-stones. Two were found in the Swedish province of Uppland and have the inscription finlonti, the third was found in Gotland, in the Baltic Sea. It has the inscription finlandi and dates from the 13th century, the name can be assumed to be related to the tribe name Finns, which is mentioned first known time AD98. The name Suomi has uncertain origins, but a candidate for a source is the Proto-Baltic word *źemē, in addition to the close relatives of Finnish, this name is also used in the Baltic languages Latvian and Lithuanian

6.
National Bureau of Investigation (Finland)
–
The National Bureau of Investigation, headquartered in the city of Vantaa since 1994, is a nationwide law enforcement agency in Finland. The NBI is also responsible for taking measures provided in the Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering, when necessary, the NBI supports the local police in the first steps of homicide investigations and in coordination of preliminary actions of major cybercrime investigations. The NBI takes part in major disaster investigations through the Finnish Disaster Victim Identification Team, the NBI is in charge of cooperation in the field of PCB criminal intelligence in line with the cooperation agreement made between the Police, Customs and the Border Guard. The activities are organised around the National PCB Criminal Intelligence Centre supported by the PCB Intelligence Units specialised in air traffic, sea traffic, the NBI serves as the national authority in international police cooperation and hosts the national centres of Interpol, Europol and Schengen cooperation. The NBI makes forensic analyses, develops and harmonises analytical methods, the Bureau also develops, tests and approves forensic investigation methods, equipment, devices and materials introduced to the police force. The organisation is divided into Administration, Criminal Investigation, Criminal Intelligence, the NBI also has field offices in Tampere, Turku, Maarianhamina, Joensuu, Oulu and Rovaniemi. Most of the Bureaus personnel serve as law enforcement agents, agents serve mainly in investigative and intelligence duties. Civilian staff include experts like chemists, laboratory assistants, clerks, engineers, the NBI headquarters also houses the Crime Museum. The Museum holds about 6000 pieces of history including tools used in crimes, objects related to punishment, documents. Most of the collections are from the 20th century, the Museum is not open to the public. The investigation was being conducted by a joint investigation team consisting of among others Austrian, Belgian, in April 2015 a new unit targeting cyber crime was established at the Bureaus headquarters. The unit has a staff of 45 and will work in cooperation with Europol. United States law enforcement will also be an important partner since companies like Google, the units chief named focused cyber attacks as Finlands greatest threat. During 2014 the NBI received 23062 reports of money laundering of which 11 were reported to be connected to terrorism, in continuative investigations the Bureau confiscated 11,5 million euros of criminal origin and exposed 44 criminal activity sets. On 17 December 2015 the Deputy Chief Tero Kurenmaa commented that NBI is browsing through large amount of details in relation the presumed war crimes conducted outside of Finland, earlier NBI sued two asylum seekers for 11 cases of murder, and he did not exclude further cases to surface. He noted, that there are so many different groups of people, referring to Shia, Sunni, furthermore he noted, that essential motive is to collect findings into a decision support system, to form daily situational picture. They have been noted to have led to White Russian developers as origin for the software to combine public Facebook data to other sources. However they did not critically reflect their own functions doing similar reporting, NBI became under heavy public pressure after it was found that it had collected largely unauthentic and irrelevant information into an internal EPRI database

7.
Finnish Security Intelligence Service
–
Finnish Security Intelligence Service is the intelligence agency of Finland in charge of national security. The service formerly used the English title Finnish Security Police, the agencys staff is composed of 220 law enforcement agents with advanced training. It specialises in preventing security threats and participates in protecting the parliamentary democracy as well as protecting the security interests. The English title Finnish Security Police, was changed on August 27,2010 and this was done to mark the continuing change of the agencys mission away from the area of traditional police responsibilities, towards international security intelligence duties. Supo was formed in 1949 to replace its predecessor, Valtiollinen poliisi, valpos predecessor was Etsivä keskuspoliisi, which was very effective in counter-intelligence and infiltration of communist organisations. It was formed from the bureau of the General Staff in 1919. The bureaus central duties include counter-terrorism, counter-intelligence, preventing internal security threats within the nation, pre-emptive security work and it also participates in cracking down on international crime and provides expert services for industrial counter-intelligence and personal background checks. The most directly relevant function to a civilian is that Supo conducts background checks. The clearance is required for government jobs and some private-sector jobs. However, the military conducts its own checks, Supo does not have special tactical units. These duties are handled by the Karhu Team, the special unit of the Finnish police. The right to arrest and investigate was granted in 1989, armas Alhava 1949–1972 Arvo Pentti 1972–1978 Seppo Tiitinen 1978–1990 Eero Kekomäki 1990–1996 Seppo Nevala 1996–2007 Ilkka Salmi 2007–2011 Antti Pelttari 2011–2015

8.
Undercover
–
Traditionally, it is a technique employed by law enforcement agencies or private investigators, and a person who works in such a role is commonly referred to as an undercover agent. At the end of 1811, Vidocq set up an informal plainclothes unit, the Brigade de la Sûreté, the Sûreté initially had eight, then twelve, and, in 1823, twenty employees. One year later, it expanded again, to 28 secret agents, in addition, there were eight people who worked secretly for the Sûreté, but instead of a salary, they received licences for gambling halls. A major portion of Vidocqs subordinates were ex-criminals like himself, Vidocq personally trained his agents, for example, in selecting the correct disguise based on the kind of job. He himself still went out hunting for criminals too and his memoirs are full of stories about how he outsmarted crooks by pretending to be a beggar or an old cuckold. At one point, he even simulated his own death, in England, the first modern police force was established in 1829 by Sir Robert Peel as the Metropolitan Police of London. From the start, the force occasionally employed plainclothes undercover detectives, in part due to these concerns, the 1845 official Police Orders required all undercover operations to be specifically authorized by the superintendent. It was only in 1869 that Police commissioner Edmund Henderson established a formal plainclothes detective division and this pioneering branch was the first to be trained in counter terrorism techniques. Its name was changed to Special Branch as it had its remit expanded to incorporate a general role in counter terrorism, combating foreign subversion. Law enforcement agencies elsewhere established similar Branches, various federal agencies began their own undercover programs shortly afterwards – the Federal Bureau of Investigation was founded in 1908. There are two problems that can affect agents working in undercover roles. The first is the maintenance of identity and the second is the back into normal duty. Living a double life in a new environment presents many problems, Undercover work is one of the most stressful jobs a special agent can undertake. The largest cause of stress identified is the separation of an agent from friends, family and this simple isolation can lead to depression and anxiety. There is no data on the rates of agents. Stress can also result from an apparent lack of direction of the investigation or not knowing when it will end, the amount of elaborate planning, risk, and expenditure can pressure an agent to succeed, which can cause considerable stress. The stress that an undercover agent faces is considerably different from his counterparts on regular duties, whose source of stress is the administration. As the undercover agents are removed from the bureaucracy, it may result in another problem and this stress may be instrumental in the development of drug or alcohol abuse in some agents

9.
Sting operation
–
In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. Even mass media journalists resort to sting operations to record video, sting operations are common in many countries, such as the United States, but are not permitted in some countries, such as Sweden. Law-enforcement may have to be not to provoke the commission of a crime by someone who would not otherwise have done so. Additionally, in the process of such operations, the police engage in the same crimes, such as buying or selling contraband, soliciting prostitutes. In common law jurisdictions, the defendant may invoke the defense of entrapment, contrary to popular misconceptions, however, entrapment does not prohibit undercover police officers from posing as criminals or denying that they are police. For example, if undercover officers coerced a potential suspect into manufacturing illegal drugs to sell them, however, if a suspect is already manufacturing drugs and police pose as buyers to catch them, entrapment usually has not occurred. In 1998, three joined forces to conduct a sting operation where they successfully recovered the Honduras Goodwill Moon Rock from a vault in Miami. The sting operation was known as Operation Lunar Eclipse and the agencies were NASA Office of Inspector General. The moon rock was offered to the agents for $5 million. Operation Lunar Eclipse and the Moon Rock Project were the subject of the book The Case of the Missing Moon Rocks by Joe Kloc, in White Collar, a fictional renowned thief, known as Neal Caffrey, is caught and serves as a criminal consultant for the FBI. Neal during these cases resumes a false identity to lure forgers and other out of hiding so that the FBI can arrest. In the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, the in-game police LCPD took over an in-game website Little Lacy Surprise Pageant, visiting the site results in the player attracting police attention. Spencer Ackerman, Government agents directly involved in most high-profile US terror plots, human Rights Watch documents sting operations. Report raises questions about post-9/11 civil rights, The Guardian,21 July 2014

10.
Provost (military police)
–
Provosts are military police whose duties are policing solely within the Armed Forces, as opposed to Gendarmerie duties in the civilian population. However, many countries use their gendarmerie for provost duties, as with all official terms, some countries have specific official terminology which differs from the exact linguistic meaning. The head of the police is commonly referred to as the Provost Marshal. This ancient title was given to an officer whose duty it was to ensure that the army of the king did no harm to the citizenry. Not all military organizations are concerned with all of these areas. These personnel are generally not front-line combatants but, especially when directing military convoys, some MPs, such as the US MP Corps, are used as the primary defense force in rear area operations. In many countries, military forces have separate prisons and judicial systems, the military possibly also has its own interpretation of criminal justice. In the Australian Army, the Royal Australian Corps of Military Police also performs the role of a communications network in the front battle zone. The military police of the Austrian Bundesheer is called Kommando Militärstreife & Militärpolizei, the Belgian Armys Military Police Group performs military police duties on behalf of all four components of the Belgian military. The group is headed by a lieutenant-colonel and numbers 188 members in five MP companies, Military police duties in Belgium have always included enforcement of military discipline, managing road traffic and wartime handling of prisoners of war. In 2003, duties relating to refugees and deserters in wartime were transferred from the then disbanded Gendarmerie Nationale to the MPs, members of the former 4 and 6 MP Companies were folded into the new MP Group, along with some Gendarmes previously assigned MP-related duties. Belgian MPs are identified by black armbands with the letters MP in white block letters, worn on the left arm. Each branch of the Brazilian Armed Forces, however, has its own provost force, Polícia do Exército in the Army, Polícia da Marinha in the Navy, and Polícia da Aeronáutica in the Air Force. They have the power to arrest anyone who is subject to the Code of Service Discipline, regardless of position or rank under the National Defence Act. If in fact a crime is committed on or in relation to DND property or assets, MP have the power to arrest and charge the offender, military or civilian, under the Criminal Code. It is important to note though that the purpose of the CFMP is not to replace the job of a police officer. MP also have the power to enforce the Provincial Highway Traffic Act on all military bases in Canada contrary to the Government Property Traffic Regulations, unlike military police in many other countries, the Republic of China Military Police are a separate branch of the ROC Armed Forces. The ROCMP are also charged with the defense of Taipei, the capital of the Republic of China, the Sotilaspoliisi are the military police of the Finnish Defence Forces

11.
Military police
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Military police are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In the Second World War, the police of the German Army still used a metal gorget as an emblem. Naval police members are sometimes called masters-at-arms and shore patrol, Military police in Brazil has two meanings. There are provost corps for each of the Brazilian Armed Forces, Army Police for the Army, Navy Police for the Navy, the second type are the civilian preventative police, with military organization comparable to gendarmerie, called the Military Police. Each State has their own Military Police, there is also a joint National Public Security Force, created in 1999. This force is composed of the most qualified State Military Police personnel from all the states and they have the power to arrest anyone who is subject to the Code of Service Discipline, regardless of position or rank under the National Defence Act. If in fact a crime is committed on or in relation to DND property or assets, MP have the power to arrest and charge the offender, military or civilian, under the Criminal Code. It is important to note though that the purpose of the CFMP is not to replace the job of a police officer. MP also have the power to enforce the Provincial Highway Traffic Acts on all military bases in Canada pursuant to the Government Property Traffic Regulations, in Colombia, MPs are very common. They can be seen guarding closed roads, museums, embassies, government buildings, in the National Army of Colombia they are assigned to the 37 Military Police Battalions, wearing green uniforms with the military police helmet. A Naval Police battalion is in service in the Colombian Marine Corps, Each branch of the military of the United States maintains its own police force. The U. S. CGIS primarily investigates and charges those in its own population with serious crimes, such as rape, assault or forgery, Navy, designated as Naval Security Force, primarily responsible for law enforcement and force protection. NSF personnel are led by Naval commissioned officers from the Limited Duty Officer and Chief Warrant Officer communities, additionally, a host installations Security Force are augmented by Sailors on Temporary Assignment of Duty from their parent units, as part of the Auxiliary Security Force. Prior to the 1970s, Master-at-Arms and Shore Patrol were used synonymously to refer to Sailors assigned to law enforcement. Air Force Security Forces —United States Air Force Each service also maintains uniformed civilian police departments and they are referred to as Department of Defense Police. These police fall under each directorate they work for within the United States Department of Defense, for example, the Department of the Air Force Police operate under the Air Provost Marshal. The police officers duties are similar to those of civilian police officers. They enforce the Uniform Code of Military Justice, federal and state laws, the United States Constabulary was a gendarmerie force used to secure and patrol the American Zone of West Germany immediately after World War II

12.
Wiretaps
–
Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line. Legal wiretapping by a government agency is also called lawful interception, passive wiretapping monitors or records the traffic, while active wiretapping alters or otherwise affects it. Lawful interception is officially controlled in many countries to safeguard privacy. Illegal or unauthorized telephone tapping is often a criminal offense, however, the telephone recording laws in most U. S. states require only one party to be aware of the recording, while 12 states require both parties to be aware. It is considered better practice to announce at the beginning of a call that the conversation is being recorded, in Canadian law, police are allowed to wiretap without the authorization from a court when there is the risk for imminent harm, such as kidnapping or a bomb threat. They must believe that the interception is immediately necessary to prevent an act that could cause serious harm to any person or to property. This was introduced by Rob Nicholson on February 11,2013, the Supreme Court gave Parliament twelve months to rewrite a new law. Bill C-51 was then released, which transformed the Canadian Security Intelligence Agency from an intelligence gathering agency, legal protection extends to private communications where the participants would not expect unintended persons to learn the content of the communication. A single participant can legally, and covertly record a conversation, otherwise police normally need a judicial warrant based upon probable grounds to record a conversation they are not a part of. The government has set up the Centralized Monitoring System to automate the process of lawful interception, the government of India on 2015 December 2 in a reply to parliament question no. The contracts or licenses by which the state telephone companies often require that the companies must provide access to tapping lines to law enforcement. When telephone exchanges were mechanical, a tap had to be installed by technicians, now that many exchanges have been converted to digital technology, tapping is far simpler and can be ordered remotely by computer. Telephone services provided by cable TV companies also use digital switching technology, a well-designed tap installed on a phone wire can be difficult to detect. In some instances some law enforcement may be able to access a mobile phones internal microphone even while it isnt actively being used on a phone call. The noises that some believe to be telephone taps are simply crosstalk created by the coupling of signals from other phone lines. Data on the calling and called number, time of call and duration, will generally be collected automatically on all calls and these data can be accessed by security services, often with fewer legal restrictions than for a tap. This information used to be collected using special equipment known as pen registers and trap and trace devices, today, a list of all calls to a specific number can be obtained by sorting billing records

13.
Patria Pasi
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The Patria Pasi is a Finnish made six-wheeled armoured personnel carrier originally designed for Finnish Defence Forces. The first version was produced in 1983 and serial production began in 1984 and it was designed to operate with ease of use, simple structure and low-cost maintenance. The basic appearance and configuration of Patria Pasi is similar to most wheeled APCs, the XA-180 and XA-185 versions are fully amphibious while the XA-203 is not. In 1980, Sisu produced an XA-180 prototype for Finnish Army tests and it competed against two other prototypes, but was declared the winner of the trials in 1983. On 22 December 1983 the Finnish Army ordered a first batch of fifty XA-180s, the vehicle proved quite successful and more orders were soon to follow. The XA-180 was originally manufactured and marketed by the Finnish company Sisu Auto, the Vehicles widely known nickname Pasi stems from the Finnish name panssari-Sisu. The main superstructure is mainly manufactured from 6 to 12 mm of steel and the bottom is mine strengthened. The vehicle has continuous six wheel drive and good capabilities for off-road driving and it can take inclines up to a maximum of 60°. The XA series has no armament, but is equipped with a rotating turret-structure for installation of light/heavy machine guns or autocannons. It also has 8 BMP style firing ports on the sides, therefore, passengers, usually a squad of infantry, can fire their weapons from the cover of the armor. The XA series is popular in peacekeeping missions due to its mobility, non-aggressive appearance and it also offers more internal space compared to other similar vehicles like the Fuchs or BTR-80. The Sisu Pasi has seen service in several areas, including Afghanistan, Bosnia, Croatia, Eritrea, Golan Heights, Iraq, Kosovo, Lebanon, Macedonia, Namibia, Liberia, Somalia. Pasis have also used by the Finnish police in sieges. Sisu XA-180 Original six wheeler, carries crew of 2 and 16 troops, Sisu XA-185 Upgraded version, carries crew of 2 and 18 troops. Has a more powerful engine and improved power transmission, Used as ambulance in the Norwegian Army. Armoured and machine assisted gun turret, can not swim because of the heavy armour. Engine and transmission same as XA-185, Sisu XA-188 Used by the Netherlands Army. Sisu XA-200 The 200 series looks a little different from older variants due to increased armour and it lacks amphibious capabilities but can wade through water that is up to 1.5 m deep

14.
Kauhajoki school shooting
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The Kauhajoki school shooting occurred on 23 September 2008, at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Western Finland. The gunman, 22-year-old student Matti Juhani Saari, shot and fatally injured ten people with a Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol and he died a few hours later in Tampere University Hospital. One woman was injured but was in a stable condition, the shooting took place at the Kauhajoki School of Hospitality, owned by the Seinäjoki Municipal Federation of Education. The facilities and campus were shared between the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences and the Seinäjoki Vocational Education Centre – Sedu, Saari was a second-year student in a Bachelor of Hospitality Management degree programme. The incident was the school shooting in less than a year in Finland. Before that, only one other school shooting had taken place in the history, in Rauma in 1989. Saari entered through the buildings via the basement. The shooting began at around 10,40, when roughly 200 people were assembled inside the college, the emergency services received their first call at 10,46. Saari was armed with a.22 LR calibre Walther P22 Target semi-automatic firearm and he wore dark clothing and a balaclava. The schools caretaker Jukka Forsberg, who had several shots directed at him but survived, Saari initially opened fire on a group of students taking a business studies exam, and entered at least one other classroom. According to the three students who were able to escape the room, Saari had approached his victims individually before shooting them. It was also said that he was revelling in the situation and was acting very aggressively, Saari encountered little resistance, and the massacre was concluded relatively quickly. He then covered the classroom in a liquid, believed to be petrol. A student in an adjacent classroom, Sanna Orpana, said that her class had heard shooting, Orpana believed at the time that the noise may have been coming from a toy gun, and two other students went to investigate the noise. Saari shot at them, and the students in Orpanas classroom hid under a table before running upstairs. At some point between 10, 45–11,00 Saari ran down a corridor and threw a bomb into a language laboratory. He then shot out all of the windows in the main corridor. It was during this time that he took aim at Forsberg

15.
Finnish language
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Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken, the Kven language, a dialect of Finnish, is spoken in Northern Norway by a minority group of Finnish descent. Finnish is the member of the Finnic language family and is typologically between fusional and agglutinative languages. It modifies and inflects nouns, adjectives, pronouns, numerals and verbs, Finnish is a member of the Finnic group of the Uralic family of languages. The Finnic group also includes Estonian and a few minority languages spoken around the Baltic Sea, several theories exist as to the geographic origin of Finnish and the other Uralic languages. The most widely held view is that they originated as a Proto-Uralic language somewhere in the boreal forest belt around the Ural Mountains region and/or the bend of the middle Volga. The Finns are more similar to their Indo-European-speaking neighbours than to the speakers of the geographically close Uralic language Sami. It has been argued that a native Finnic-speaking population absorbed northward migrating Indo-European speakers who adopted the Finnic language, the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, United States classifies Finnish as a level III language in terms of learning difficulty for native English speakers. Finnish is spoken by five million people, most of whom reside in Finland. There are also notable Finnish-speaking minorities in Sweden, Norway, Russia, Estonia, Brazil, Canada, the majority of the population of Finland,90. 37% as of 2010, speak Finnish as their first language. The remainder speak Swedish, Sami and other languages and it has achieved some popularity as a second language in Estonia. Finnish is one of two languages of Finland and one of the official languages in the European Union since 1995. Finnish language started to gain its role during the Grand Duchy of Finland, along with the nationalistic Fennoman movement and it enjoys the status of an official minority language in Sweden. The Finnic languages evolved from the Proto-Finnic language after Sámi was separated from it around 1500–1000 BCE, current models assume three or more hypothetical Proto-Finnic proto-dialects evolving over the first millennium BCE. During the Middle Ages, Finnish was solely an oral language, the first known written example of Finnish comes from this era and was found in a German travel journal dating back to c.1450, Mÿnna tachton gernast spuho somen gelen emÿna daÿda. According to the journal, a Finnish bishop, whose name is unknown, was behind the above quotation. Finnish priestdom at the time was largely Swedish-speaking, the first comprehensive writing system for Finnish was created by Mikael Agricola, a Finnish bishop, in the 16th century

16.
Crime in Finland
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Crime in Finland is combated by the Finnish police and other agencies. In 2015, Finland had a rate of 1.28 per 100,000 population. There were a total of 70 murders in Finland in 2015, half of murders involve men of marginalized groups in heavy drinking situations. Thirty-five percent of homicides are committed by members, and ten percent of homicides are classified as youth violence. Women constitute 10 percent of offenders and 25 percent of victims, the vast majority of female offenders target a husband or other family member. Twenty-three percent of victims of male offenders were strangers. Fewer than 20 percent of murders are committed outdoors, sixty percent of male and 30 percent of the female homicide offenders have been arrested for drunken driving at least once. Firearms are used in 14 percent of the cases, street shootings and gang violence are extremely rare. A few cases involving motorcycle gangs have occurred in recent years, in 2005,594 cases of rape,380 cases of other sex crime and 946 cases of statutory rape were reported to the police. According to official statistics,27. 0% of rapes have been committed by foreigners in Finland, in contrast, the rape support helpline Tukinainen reports that 6% of all callers and 11% of 10–20-year-old callers say that the rapist was a foreigner. Finnish rapists are more likely to be known personally by the victim, furthermore, there are great asymmetries between nationalities of rapists. Finland has been known to give low sentences for crimes such as cartel behaviour, insider trading. The sentences are low when compared with the potential benefits of committing such crimes. An example of the difference between sentence and benefits is the case of Lemminkäinen in 2006, Lemminkäinen was hit with a €68,000,000 fine for cartel. This was markedly lower than the estimated €400,000,000 Lemminkäinen would have made if receiving just 20% of the criminal profit, executives were not sentenced to prison or fined for their involvement. Examples of cartels in Finland include, Metsäliitto and Stora Enso who were sentenced €500,000, the European Union has given much higher sanctions for cartels, as seen in the cases of UPM-Kymmene, Outokumpu, and Kemira. Political corruption levels are low and previously Finland was annually named the least corrupted country for years. The number of notices of corruption related crimes were lower than the rate in 2007—there were about 15 reports of bribery or attempted bribery annually

17.
Police brutality
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Police brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct which involves undue violence by police members. Widespread police brutality exists in countries and territories, even those that prosecute it. Although illegal, it can be performed under the color of law, the term police brutality was in use in the American press as early as 1872, when the Chicago Tribune reported on the beating of a civilian under arrest at the Harrison Street Police Station. Cases of police brutality appear to have been frequent then, with the bludgeoning of citizens by patrolmen armed with nightsticks or blackjacks. Portions of the population may perceive the police to be oppressors, in addition, there is a perception that victims of police brutality often belonging to relatively powerless groups, such as minorities, the disabled, the young, and the poor. After facing federal trial, two of the four officers were convicted and received 32 months prison sentence, the case was widely seen as a key factor in the reform of the Los Angeles Police Department. According to data released by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, between 2003 and 2009 at least 4,813 people died in the process of being arrested by local police. Of the deaths classified as law enforcement homicides,2,876 deaths occurred of which 1,643 or 57. 1% of the people who died were people of color, Police brutality entails serious violations of the human rights to life and physical security. In accordance with human rights law, victims have a right to forcibly resist police brutality where absolutely necessary to prevent serious and irreparable harm. Notably, police brutality entailing extrajudicial killings, torture and inhuman treatment may be resisted, incidents of police brutality in Austria seem to be largely influenced and triggered by racism and prejudice against foreign nationals and ethnic minorities within the community. This underlying issue has continued to be present and relevant when examining cases of police brutality within Austria, for example, in Vienna there tends to be an association made between Viennas drug problem and the citys African migrants. This has led to the existence of cultural stereotypes which have then led to the racial profiling of African migrants. There have been a number of highly publicised incidents in Austria where police have either tortured, publicly humiliated, the most notorious of these incidents occurred in the late 1990s, however recent reports in 2015 show that police are still treating civilians in this way. 24 April 1996, Mr Jevremovic, a Serbian Romani man and he escaped, and later a large group of police came into his home without a warrant, and violently beat him and his wife before taking them both into custody. May 1996, Marcus Omofuma, an Illegal Nigerian immigrant, was being deported from Vienna when the officers taped him to his chair like a mummy and he suffocated whilst in police custody. November 1998, Dr C, a black Austrian citizen, was stopped by police after reversing his car into a street and was asked Why are you driving the wrong way. He was beaten unconscious and handcuffed, Police continued beating him after he regained consciousness. After he was arrested, he spent 11 days in hospital recovering,28 July 2015, A 27-year-old man, suspected of being a pickpocket, was handcuffed and violently thrown into the ground whilst under police custody

18.
Judicial system of Finland
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Under the Constitution of Finland, everyone is entitled to have their case heard by a court or an authority appropriately and without undue delay. This is achieved through the system of Finland. The Finnish legal system originated during the period before Swedish rule, the traditional system of tings for criminal cases and civil disputes continued after conquest and the countrys first court of appeals was established at Turku in 1634. Since then, the Code has undergone numerous changes and this division dates back to the administrative procedure of the 18th and 19th centuries. This division was formalized in 1918 when two sections of the Senate became the newly independent countrys two highest courts, the Senate Department of Justice became the Supreme Court, and part of the Senate Finance Department was the basis of the Supreme Administrative Court. The two court systems are separate, and they have no jurisdiction over one another. The establishment of the two courts was confirmed by the Constitution Act of 1919, overseeing the system of justice are the Chancellor of Justice and the Parliamentary Ombudsman. Both officials receive complaints from citizens about the conduct of civil servants, the Chancellor of Justice also supervises advocates. Both officials may call any Finnish authorities to render assistance as they deem fit. As in the other Nordic countries, there is no constitutional court, issues dealt with by a court of this kind elsewhere are handled by the Parliaments Constitutional Committee. Finnish thinking on criminal policy, as it was evolved by the 1980s, in practical terms, punishments are standardized, and they are imposed consistently for all categories of crimes, in the interest of ensuring equality in the application of the law. For this reason, the penal code restricts the discretionary power of the courts in imposing sentences, thus, the tendency has been to rely on light punishment, especially on fines, and to emphasize short sentences of a few weeks or months. The courts are expected to ensure that punishment is not extended indirectly to the offenders family. The tendency since the early 1970s has been to decriminalize a number of actions formerly indictable under the penal code, among the acts decriminalized were creating a public disturbance because of drunkenness as well as certain offenses against property, such as petty theft. Homosexual acts between consenting adults also ceased to be regarded as a criminal offense, stiff penalties for offenses against persons, threats of violence against persons, and driving under influence remained unaffected, however. Finland has been less willing than other Scandinavian countries to replace punishment with other measures, under legislation enacted in 1931, offenders dangerous to private or public safety could be confined in a separate institution for recidivists after their sentences had expired. As a result, the number of offenders held in internment of any kind fell dramatically, although indefinite detention remained legal, this provision was not enforced after the mid-1970s. Any lawyer applying for membership in the Finnish Bar Association must have completed a Master of Laws degree, entitling them to judicial office

19.
History of Finland
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The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the last ice age, which ended in 9000 BC. Finnish nationalism emerged, focused on Finnish cultural traditions, including music and—especially—the highly distinctive language, the catastrophic Finnish famine of 1866–1868 was followed by eased economic regulations and extensive emigration. A civil war between the Finnish Red Guards and the White Guard ensued a few later, with the Whites gaining the upper hand during the springtime of 1918. After the internal affairs stabilized, the mainly agrarian economy grew relatively quickly. Relations with the West, especially Sweden and Britain, were strong, however, Finland remained an independent democracy in North Europe. In the latter half of its independent history, Finland has maintained a mixed economy, since its post-World War II economic boom in the 1970s, Finlands GDP per capita has been among the worlds highest. The expanded welfare state of Finland from 1970 and 1990 increased the public employees and spending. In 1992, Finland simultaneously faced economic overheating and depressed Western, Russian, Finland joined the European Union in 1995, and replaced the Finnish markka with the euro in 2002. According to a 2005 poll, most Finns at that point were reluctant to join NATO, if confirmed, the oldest archeological site in Finland would be the Wolf Cave in Kristinestad, in Ostrobothnia. The last ice age in the area of the modern-day Finland ended c.9000 BC, starting about that time, people migrated to the area of Finland from the Kunda and—possibly—Swiderian cultures, and they are believed to be ancestors of todays Finnish and Sami people in Finland. The oldest confirmed evidence of the human settlements in Finland are from the area of Ristola in Lahti and from Orimattila. Finland has been inhabited at least since the end of the last ice age. The earliest post-glacial inhabitants of the area of Finland were probably mainly seasonal hunter-gatherers. Their artifacts discovered are known to represent the Suomusjärvi and the Kunda cultures, among finds is the net of Antrea, the oldest fishing net known ever to have been excavated. By 5300 BC pottery was present in Finland, the earliest samples belong to the Comb Ceramic Cultures, known for their distinctive decorating patterns. This marks the beginning of the period for Finland, although subsistence was still based on hunting and fishing. Extensive networks of exchange existed across Finland and northeastern Europe during the 5th millennium BC, rock paintings — apparently related to shamanistic and totemistic belief systems — have been found, especially in Eastern Finland, e. g. Astuvansalmi. Between 3500 and 2000 BC, monumental stone enclosures colloquially known as Giants Churches were constructed in the Ostrobothnia region, the purpose of the enclosures is unknown

20.
Early Finnish wars
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Early Finnish wars are scattered descriptions of conflicts involving Finnish tribes or Finland prior to the gradual Swedish conquest of Finland in 13th and 14th centuries. The most important sources are Novgorod First Chronicle, Primary Chronicle, fortifications are known from Finland already from the Stone Age onwards. In Yli-Ii by the Iijoki river is located the Kierikki Stone Age fortress, also the approximately 40 Giants Churches from the Neolithic period found from the northwest coast of Finland may have served as fortifications. Bronze Age hillforts have also found from Finland, such as Hautvuori in Laitila. In the Merovingian period belligerence and military hierarchy has been emphasized, hillforts get more common from Iron Age forward. According to the earliest historical documents in the Middle Ages Finnic tribes around the Baltic Sea were often in conflict with other as well as against other entities in the area. Ynglingasaga tells about the first known expedition to Finland. It happened one summer that King Agne went with his army to Finland, the Finland people gathered a large army, and proceeded to the strife under a chief called Froste. There was a battle, in which King Agne gained the victory. King Agne proceeded with armed hand through Finland, subdued it, norna-Gests þáttr saga tells that Kvens were raiding in Sweden in the mid-8th century. Sigurd Ring was not there, since he had to defend his land, Sweden, in the late 9th century, king Eric Anundsson was said to have conquered Finland, with several other eastern countries. Finland was probably the same as Terra Feminarum which was attacked by Sweden in the 1050s, according to the source, the attack ended in the Swedish defeat, and led to the death of the kings son who was in charge of the campaign. Information on the conflict is however convoluted, the best-known Swedish war against Finland presumably took place in the 1150s known as the legendary First Swedish Crusade. Whether it ever happened, is however not certain as the information is based on the late 13th century legends. Sweden eventually took over Finland during the so-called Second Swedish Crusade around 1249, by the end of the century, records of independent Finnish military activities ceased to surface. And there are many fresh water lakes beyond the moors. Legendary Orkneyinga saga tells about Nor who travelled from Kvenland to Norway, based on sagas internal chronologies, the war would have taken place on the 6th or 7th century. Another version of the saga, Hversu Noregr byggdist, however omits the Kvenland part completely, saga of Olaf Haraldson tells how the Saint Olaf himself, the King of Norway, plundered in Finland around 1007 and almost got killed at the Battle at Herdaler

21.
Finland under Swedish rule
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Finland under Swedish rule refers to the period in the history of Finland when it was a part of Sweden. It has traditionally been considered as starting from 1150, when according to the legend of St. Erik the king Eric IX of Sweden, the actual starting point of the Swedish rule is however under a large amount of uncertainty and controversy. Clear historical evidence of the establishing of Swedish rule in Finland exist from 1249 onwards, the period of Swedish rule ended in the Finnish war in 1808–1809. Swedish-ruled Finland has in the 20th century also referred to as Sweden-Finland. The term has been used to refer to the realm consisting of the parts of current Sweden. Finland was the frontier of the realm, which brought many wars. The Finnish language, dating from prehistoric times, and some parts of folklore religion and culture remained under Swedish rule, for example, in this period Finnish adopted the Latin alphabet as its writing system and a huge amount of Swedish loanwords. The written history of Finland is said to have begun at the 12th century, up until the 14th century, information about Finland has been incomplete and unreliable. The latter part of the 12th century and the 13th century are sometimes called Finlands protohistory, according to the legend of Eric the Holy, the King of Sweden Eric the Holy began the conquest of Finland by making the first crusade to Finland to southwest Finland in the 1150s. According to the chronicle and other sources, the bishop Henry was converting people to Christianity in the areas of Finland Proper. There has been controversy over the factualness of this information, establishing the Christian church as an institution in Finland has probably caused some resistance in the native Finnish population, as told in the legend of the peasant Lalli. It is however probable that the western or eastern Christianity had spread to Finland already during Finlands prehistory, there have been hints about this for example in graves found during archaeological diggings. The old-fashioned romantic nationalist view of a quick conquest of Finland, the Kingdom of Sweden was only starting to form in the 12th century. The area what is now Finland moved to or formed as a part of the Swedish realm gradually during the 12th or 13th century, most native people in the area spoke Finnish or Sami dialects. The Finnish-speaking population probably did not have a common identity, in the 13th century, Sweden made crusades to Western Finland or Tavastia and to Karelia. Apparently this caused the Swedish rule to be finally established, by approximately 1300, what is now Western and Southern Finland, up to the Karelian isthmus, had become part of Sweden and the Uppsala diocese, which was ruled from castles. The Käkisalmi area and the Ladoga Karelia retained their ties to the Orthodox southwest Russia, the collision between the Catholic and the Orthodox cultures happened in the area that is now Finland. The Treaty of Nöteborg, made in 1323, was the first peace treaty between Sweden and Novgorod and it also defined the eastern boundary of the Swedish realm and Finland at least for Karelia

22.
Cudgel War
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The Cudgel War was a 1596/97 peasant uprising in the kingdom of Sweden. The yeomen also had swords, some firearms and two cannons at their disposal and their opponents, the troops of Clas Eriksson Fleming, were professional, heavily armed and armoured men-at-arms. An uprising began on Christmas Eve 1595 and was initially successful, in December 1596, the Cudgel War began. The peasants won a number of encounters with infantry, klaus Fleming began negotiating a truce that required the surrender of peasant leader Jaakko Ilkka. Ilkka fled to avoid being handed over and the peasant army scattered, pursued by the soldiers, at least 1500 were killed within the next two months. Along with Jaakko Ilkka, five other leaders were executed on January 27,1597. Israel Laurinpoika was named as the new governor of central and northern Ostrobothnia, however, he fled rather than face Fleming. Leaderless, the peasants opened battle with Fleming on February 24,1597, over 1000 were killed and 500 captured. The insurgents were mostly Finnish peasants from Ostrobothnia, Northern Tavastia, the events can also be seen as a part of a larger power struggle between King Sigismund and Duke Charles. In his work Nuijasota, sen syyt ja tapaukset, historian and fennoman Yrjö Koskinen saw the peasants as fighting for freedom, fredrika Runebergs Sigrid Liljeholm, one of the first historical novels in Finland, depicts womens fates during the war. Albert Edelfelts painting Poltettu kylä depicts a woman, a child, the poet Kaarlo Kramsu praised the insurgents and lamented their defeat in patriotic poems such as Ilkka, Hannu Krankka, and Santavuoren tappelu, published in Runoelmia. A historical reenactment of the Cudgel War is conducted yearly in the Kavalahti scout camp, Jaakko Ilkka took the 75th place in the Great Finns TV show. A commemorative silver coin was minted to mark the occasion

23.
Great Northern War
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The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway. George I of Great Britain and of Brunswick-Lüneburg joined the coalition in 1714 for and for Hanover in 1717, Charles XII led the Swedish army. Swedish allies included Holstein-Gottorp, several Polish magnates under Stanisław I Leszczyński, the Ottoman Empire temporarily hosted Charles XII of Sweden and intervened against Peter I. The treaty also secured the extradition and execution of Johann Reinhold Patkul, the Ottoman Empire defeated the Russian-Moldavian army in the Pruth River Campaign, but that peace treaty was in the end without great consequence to Russias position. After Poltava, the anti-Swedish coalition revived and subsequently Hanover and Prussia joined it, the remaining Swedish forces in plague-stricken areas south and east of the Baltic Sea were evicted, with the last city, Riga, falling in 1710. The coalition members partitioned most of the Swedish dominions among themselves, Sweden proper was invaded from the west by Denmark–Norway and from the east by Russia, which had occupied Finland by 1714. Sweden defeated the Danish invaders at the Battle of Helsingborg, Charles XII opened up a Norwegian front, but was killed in Fredriksten in 1718. The war ended with Swedens defeat, leaving Russia as the new dominant power in the Baltic region, by these treaties Sweden ceded her exemption from the Sound Dues, and lost the Baltic provinces and the southern part of Swedish Pomerania. The peace treaties also ended her alliance with Holstein-Gottorp, Hanover gained Bremen-Verden, Brandenburg-Prussia incorporated the Oder estuary, Russia secured the Baltic Provinces, and Denmark strengthened her position in Schleswig-Holstein. In Sweden, the monarchy had come to an end with the death of Charles XII. Between the years of 1560 and 1658, Sweden created a Baltic empire centred on the Gulf of Finland and comprising the provinces of Karelia, Ingria, Estonia, and Livonia. During the Thirty Years War Sweden gained tracts in Germany as well, including Western Pomerania, Wismar, the Duchy of Bremen, during the same period Sweden conquered Danish and Norwegian provinces north of the Sound. However, the Swedish state ultimately proved unable to support and maintain its army in a prolonged war. The cost of the proved to be much higher than the occupied countries could fund, and Swedens coffers. The foreign interventions in Russia during the Time of Troubles resulted in Swedish gains in the Treaty of Stolbovo, the treaty deprived Russia of direct access to the Baltic Sea. In the late 1690s, the adventurer Johann Patkul managed to ally Russia with Denmark and Saxony by the secret Treaty of Preobrazhenskoye, Charles XII of Sweden succeeded Charles XI of Sweden in 1697, aged 14. From his predecessor, he took over the Swedish Empire as an absolute monarch, Charles XI had tried to keep the empire out of wars, and concentrated on inner reforms such as reduction and allotment, which had strengthened the monarchs status and the empires military abilities

24.
Finnish War
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The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, the third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliaments adoption of a new constitution and the establishment of the House of Bernadotte, the king, who viewed Napoleon as the Antichrist and Britain as his ally against Napoleons France, was apprehensive of the systems ruinous consequences for Swedens maritime commerce. He instead entered into negotiations with Britain in order to prepare a joint attack against Denmark, in the meantime, the Royal Navy attacked Copenhagen and the Anglo-Russian War was declared. Referring to the treaties of 1780 and 1800, the emperor demanded that Gustav Adolf close the Baltic Sea to all foreign warships, King Gustav Adolf did this after securing an alliance with England on 8 February 1808. Meanwhile, on 30 December 1807 Russia announced that should Sweden not give a clear reply Russia would be forced to act, the situation was problematic for Sweden, since it once again faced both Denmark and Russia as potential enemies requiring the Swedes to split their forces. The king had thought it impossible to defend Finland should the attack during the winter. Most of the Swedish plans assumed that warfare would be impossible during winter, in addition, several new good roads had been built into Finland greatly reducing the earlier dependency on naval support for any large operation in Finland. Russia had gathered a wealth of information from Finland using spies, the level of detail was so great that Russian maps of Finland were in many respects more accurate than their Swedish counterparts. The Russians used the services of General Georg Magnus Sprengtporten when forming their plans, Sprengtporten suggested going on to an offensive during the winter since Finland would be mostly isolated when seas were frozen. His ideas were developed by General Jan Pieter van Suchtelen before General Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoeveden was appointed as the commander of the Russian army in Finland in December 1807. The plan involved using the series of fortifications built after 1790 as staging grounds for the Russian advances into Finland, in southern Finland, armies were to isolate the fortifications and first take control of the whole of southern Finland before advancing further to the north. Forces in Savolax were to press hard against the Swedes and reach the Gulf of Bothnia towards Uleåborg, on February 21,1808,24,000 Russian troops under Friedrich Wilhelm von Buxhoevden crossed the border. Since Klingspor had not arrived Lieutenant General Karl Nathanael af Klercker acted as Swedish commander in Finland, before the engagement started Klingspor finally arrived on 2 March and assumed command. Instead of facing the Russians at Tavastehus he ordered the army to withdraw, in Savolax the Russians also forced the Swedes to withdraw. The king was quite unprepared for the attack, especially as war was not declared until April, about 21,000 Swedish troops were stationed in various fortresses in Finland, while the rest of his army was unable to leave southern Sweden for fear of Danish attack. On the first day of the war they had captured the town of Lovisa, borgå was captured on 24 February and Helsingfors on 2 March. Abandoned Swedish fortifications Hangö Peninsula were taken and manned on 21 March, before the end of March 1808 even Vasa was taken

25.
Grand Duchy of Finland
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The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1809 and 1917 as an part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian Emperor as Grand Duke. The new title Grand Duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, during the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johns successors on the throne, but not all. Usually it was just a title of the king, used only on very formal occasions. The title Grand Duke of Finland was added to the long list of titles of the Russian Tsar, after his return to Finland in 1812, the Finnish-born Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt became counsellor to the Russian emperor. The formation of the Grand Duchy stems from the Treaty of Tilsit between Czar Alexander I of Russia and Napoleon Bonaparte of France, the treaty mediated peace between Russia and France and allied the two countries against Napoleons remaining threats, Great Britain and Sweden. Russia invaded Finland in February of 1808, claimed as an effort to impose sanctions against Sweden, but not a war of conquest. The oath also dubbed anyone person who gave aid to the Swedish or Finnish armies a rebel, the Finns complied, bitter over Sweden abandoning the country for their war against Denmark and France, and begrudgingly embraced Russian conquest. The Diet of Finland was now to only meet whenever requested, further on, Alexander I requested a deputation of the four Finnish estates, as he expressed concern over continued Finnish resistance. The deputation refused to act without the Diet, to which Alexander agreed with, by 1809, all of Finland had been conquered and The Diet was summoned in March. Finland was then united through Russia via crown, and Finland was able to keep the majority of its own laws, the earlier years of the Grand Duchy can be seen as uneventful. In 1812, the area of Old Finland, known as the Viipuri Province was returned to Finland after being annexed by Russia in the Great Northern War, despite the outcry, the borders remained set until 1940. Moreover, Alexander moved the capital from Turku to Helsinki, a fortified town protected by Suomenlinna. Finlands main university also transferred to Helsinki after a fire out in Turku. Alexander went a step further to demand a Finnish House of Nobles, the house was designed to register all noble families in Finland, so that the highest Finnish estate would be representative of the next Finnish diet. As for Sweden, the majority did not think too much about Finlands conquest, as Sweden itself annexed Norway from Denmark in 1814, despite this, Alexander I ceased to give in to Finnish affairs and returned to governing Russia. In 1823, Arseny Zakrevsky was made general of Finland and quickly became unpopular by the Finns. Zakrevsky abolished the Committee for Finnish Affairs and managed to obtain the right to submit Finnish affairs to the Czar, bypassing the Finnish Secretary of State

26.
Russification of Finland
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The two Russification campaigns evoked widespread Finnish resistance, starting with petitions and escalating to strikes, passive resistance and eventually active resistance. Finnish opposition to Russification was one of the factors that ultimately led to Finlands declaration of independence in 1917. Russia attacked Sweden in 1808, in what became known as the War of Finland. In 1809 the lost territory of Sweden became the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire, in 1809 the Finnish Diet recognized Tsar Alexander I as Grand Duke. We promise to all these benefits and laws firm and unshaken in their full force. This promise was maintained, indeed, Alexander II amplified the powers of the Finnish diet in 1869, the Language Manifesto of 1900, the decree by Emperor Nicholas II which made Russian the language of administration of Finland. The conscription law, signed by Nicholas II in July 1901 incorporating the Finnish army into the imperial army, from April 1903 until the Russian Revolution of 1905, the governor-general was granted dictatorial powers. In June 1904 Eugen Schauman assassinated Bobrikov, the incumbent, the imperial government responded with a purge of opponents of Russification within the Finnish administration and more stringent censorship. However the resistance also had some successes, notably a de facto reversal of the new conscription law. The Russification campaign was suspended and partially reversed in 1905–07 during a period of civil unrest throughout the Russian empire following Russian defeats in the Russo-Japanese War. The program was reintroduced in 1908 on, costing Finland much of its autonomy and again causing further Finnish resistance, including the Jäger movement. During the Russo–Japanese War with the aid from Japan the rebels bought a shipment of thousands of rifles with the aim of creating an uprising and forming an independent state. However, the ship was wrecked off the coast of Finland, during the First World War when Russia and Japan were allies fighting against Germany, the Japanese handed to the Russian government a list of leading men in the freedom movement. Russification Kagal Russophobia Sergeevskii, N. D. Finland, the question of autonomy and fundamental laws Alenius, Russification in Estonia and Finland Before 1917, Faravid,2004, Vol.28, pp 181–194 Huxley, Steven. Constitutionalist insurgency in Finland, Finnish passive resistance against Russification as a case of nonmilitary struggle in the European resistance tradition Polvinen, Imperial Borderland, Bobrikov and the Attempted Russification of Finland, 1898–1904 Thaden, Edward C. Russification in the Baltic Provinces and Finland, the Era of Russification The Gracious Manifesto of the Imperial Majesty, text of the February Manifesto of 1899 Nicholass Decree Limiting Finnish Autonomy, March 20,1903

27.
October Revolution
–
It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state. The revolution was led by the Bolsheviks, who used their influence in the Petrograd Soviet to organize the armed forces, Bolshevik Red Guards forces under the Military Revolutionary Committee began the takeover of government buildings on 24 October 1917. The following day, the Winter Palace, was captured, the long-awaited Constituent Assembly elections were held on 12 November 1917. The Bolsheviks only won 175 seats in the 715-seat legislative body, coming in second behind the Socialist Revolutionary party, the Constituent Assembly was to first meet on 28 November 1917, but its convocation was delayed until 5 January 1918 by the Bolsheviks. On its first and only day in session, the body rejected Soviet decrees on peace and land, as the revolution was not universally recognized, there followed the struggles of the Russian Civil War and the creation of the Soviet Union in 1922. At first, the event was referred to as the October coup or the Uprising of 25th, in Russian, however, переворот has a similar meaning to revolution and also means upheaval or overturn, so coup is not necessarily the correct translation. With time, the term October Revolution came into use and it is also known as the November Revolution having occurred in November according to the Gregorian Calendar. The Great October Socialist Revolution was the name for the October Revolution in the Soviet Union after the 10th anniversary of the Revolution in 1927. The February Revolution had toppled Tsar Nicolas II of Russia, however, the provisional government was weak and riven by internal dissension. It continued to wage World War I, which became increasingly unpopular, a nationwide crisis developed in Russia, affecting social, economic, and political relations. Disorder in industry and transport had intensified, and difficulties in obtaining provisions had increased, gross industrial production in 1917 had decreased by over 36% from what it had been in 1914. In the autumn, as much as 50% of all enterprises were closed down in the Urals, the Donbas, at the same time, the cost of living increased sharply. Real wages fell about 50% from what they had been in 1913, russias national debt in October 1917 had risen to 50 billion rubles. Of this, debts to foreign governments constituted more than 11 billion rubles, the country faced the threat of financial bankruptcy. In these months alone, more than a million took part in strikes. Workers established control over production and distribution in many factories and plants in a social revolution, by October 1917, there had been over 4,000 peasant uprisings against landowners. When the Provisional Government sent punitive detachments, it only enraged the peasants

28.
Finnish Declaration of Independence
–
The Finnish Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. Declaring the independence was only part of the process leading to independence of Finland. There were negotiations between the Russian Provisional Government and Finnish authorities, at the time of the vote it was believed that the Provisional Government would be quickly defeated by the rebellion in Saint Petersburg. The Provisional Government survived, however, disapproved of the Power Act, the regency council was however never elected because of the strong opposition of Finnish socialists and their general strike which demanded for more radical action. On 2 November 1917, the Bolsheviks declared a right of self-determination, including the right of complete secession. On the same day the Finnish Parliament issued a declaration by which it assumed, pro tempore, the old Instrument of Government was however no longer deemed suitable. Leading circles had long held monarchism and hereditary nobility to be antiquated, the Senate of Finland, the government the Parliament had appointed in November, drafted a Declaration of Independence and a proposal for a new republican Instrument of Government. Chairman of the Senate Pehr Evind Svinhufvud read the Declaration to the Parliament on 4 December, the Declaration of Independence was technically given the form of a preamble of the proposition, and was intended to be agreed by the Parliament. Parliament adopted the Declaration on 6 December, the people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfil their national and international duty without complete sovereignty. The century-old desire for freedom awaits fulfilment now, Finlands people step forward as a nation among the other nations in the world. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania declared their independence from Russia during the same period, see Estonian War of Independence, Latvian Independence and Lithuanian Wars of Independence. These three countries were occupied by, and annexed into, the Soviet Union, see Occupation of the Baltic states. The people of Finland have by this step taken their fate in their own hands, the people of Finland feel deeply that they cannot fulfil their national duty and their universal human obligations without a complete sovereignty. The century-old desire for freedom awaits fulfilment now, The People of Finland has to step forward as an independent nation among the nations in the world. Achieving this goal requires mainly some measures by the Parliament, the same goal also calls for measures from the part of the Government. The Government will approach foreign powers to seek an international recognition of our country’s independence as a state. And widely over all the horrors of the war is heard a voice, that one of the goals of the present war is to be, that no nation shall be forced against its will to be dependent on another. The Finnish people believe that the free Russian people and its constitutive National Assembly don’t want to prevent Finland’s aspiration to enter the multitude of the free and independent nations

29.
Finnish Civil War
–
The Finnish Civil War concerned leadership and control of Finland during the transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state. The conflict formed a part of the national, political, the war was fought between the Reds, led by the Social Democratic Party and the Whites, conducted by the non-socialist, conservative-led senate. The paramilitary Red Guards, composed of industrial and agrarian workers, controlled the cities, the paramilitary White Guards, composed of peasants and middle-class and upper-class factions, controlled rural central and northern Finland. Finnish society had experienced population growth, industrialization, pre-urbanization. World War I led to the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Reds carried out an unsuccessful general offensive in February 1918, supplied with weapons by Soviet Russia. A counteroffensive by the Whites began in March, reinforced by an Imperial German Army squad in April, both the Reds and Whites engaged in political terror. A high number of Red POWs died due to malnutrition and disease, altogether, around 39,000 people -36,000 Finns - perished in the conflict. In the aftermath, the Finns passed from Russian government to the German power sphere with a plan to establish German-led Finnish monarchy, the outline was aborted by the defeat of Germany in World War I. Finland emerged as an independent, democratic republic, the main factor behind the Finnish Civil War was World War I, the Russian Empire collapsed under the pressures of the war, leading to the February and October Revolutions in 1917. The breakdown caused a power vacuum and subsequent power struggle in Eastern Europe. The Grand Duchy of Finland, a part of the Russian Empire since 1809, geopolitically less important than the continental Moscow-Warsaw gateway, the northerly Finnish ground, isolated by the Baltic sea was a peaceful sidefront until early 1918. The war between the German Empire and Russia had indirect effects on the Finns, the German Empire saw Eastern Europe - primarily Russia - as a major source of vital products and raw materials, both during World War I and in the future. Between 30 and 40 million marks were spent on this endeavor, controlling the Finnish area would allow the Imperial German Army to penetrate Petrograd and the Kola Peninsula, an area rich in raw materials for the mining industry. Finland possessed large ore reserves and a well-developed forest industry, russias defeat in the Crimean War in the 1850s led to attempts to speed up the modernization of the country. This caused more than 50 years of economic, industrial, cultural and educational progress in the Grand Duchy of Finland, in 1899, the Russian Empire initiated a policy of integration through the Russification of Finland. In the power struggle, the most radical political group opposing Russia, the Activist movement, included terrorist factions from the working class and the Swedish-speaking intelligentsia. The major reasons for rising tensions among the Finns were the autocratic rule of the Russian Czar. The system originated in the Swedish Empire regime, preceding the Russian power, Finlands population grew rapidly in the 19th century, and a class of industrial and agrarian workers and property-less peasants emerged

30.
Heimosodat
–
The term in Finnish historiography heimosodat has been translated literally into English as Kindred Nations Wars, Wars for kindred peoples or Kinship Wars, specifically Finnic kinship. It is sometimes translated as Tribal Wars. It refers to conflicts in territories inhabited by other Baltic Finnic peoples, many of the volunteer soldiers were inspired by the idea of Greater Finland. Some of the conflicts were incursions from Finland and some were local uprisings, Estonian War of Independence Pohjan pojat and I Suomalainen Vapaajoukko helped Estonian troops. Other Finnic peoples were at an organized level of cultural, economic. The Finnish Civil War had awakened strong nationalistic feelings in Finnish citizens and other Finnic peoples, for the two next decades, Finns participated at a relatively high rate in nationalistic activities. This development was related to the traumatization and divisiveness of the Civil War, many of the White sympathizers in the Civil War became radically nationalistic as a result of the war. The strenuous five-year period 1939–45 of total war—which also mostly unified the nation—drained this excess of enthusiasm, heimo Tribe or clan, but in this context, also the ethnic and language kinship between Finnic peoples, kindred peoples. Somewhat comparable to the German concept of Völkisch, sukukansa People that are linguistically and/or ethnically kin to another, suku means family and kansa means people. Finnish Civil War List of Finnish wars Treaty of Tartu Winter war Continuation War War Victims of Finland 1914–1922

31.
Finland's language strife
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The language strife was one of the major conflicts of Finlands national history and domestic politics. The strife began in the half of the 19th century. Immigration of Swedish peasants to Finlands coastal regions also boosted the status of Swedish, as a result of the Finnish War, Sweden ceded Finland to Russia in 1809. Finland became a grand duchy within the Russian Empire. Johan Vilhelm Snellman became an initiator of the language strife during the 1850s. Finnish gained an official language status comparable to that of Swedish, Finnish eventually recovered its predominance in the country after the birth of Fennomanic Finnish nationalism in the 19th century. Snellman himself was a Swede and later ennobled and these people, known as the Fennomans, Fennicized their family names, learned Finnish, and made a point of using it both in public and at home. However, another group of the Swedish-speaking population, the Svecomans, did not wish to abandon Swedish, Finnish gained an official language status comparable to that of Swedish, and within a generation Finnish dominated in government and society in Finland. This situation made for conflict between the supporters of the two languages, in the newly independent Finnish constitution of 1919, Finnish and Swedish were given equal status. The language strife thereafter centered on this and on the role of Swedish in universities, Fennoman movement Svecoman movement Mandatory Swedish Language revival Language policy Coleman, Michael C. You Might All Be Speaking Swedish Today, Language Change in 19th-century Finland and Ireland

32.
Military history of Finland during World War II
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Finland participated in three major conflicts during World War II. The first two––the defensive Winter War in 1939–1940, and the Continuation War alongside the Axis Powers in 1941–1944––were waged against the Soviet Union. The third one, the Lapland War in 1944–1945, followed the signing of an agreement with the Allied Powers. As a result of territorial loss, all Finnish Karelians were evacuated from their homes. In 1809, the Russian Empire conquered Finland from Sweden in the Finnish War, Finland entered a personal union with the Russian Empire as a grand duchy with extensive autonomy. During the period of Russian rule the country generally prospered, however, in the early 20th century Russia tightened its grip on Finland, causing widespread resentment. When revolution broke out in Russia in 1917, Finland declared independence, in 1918 the Finnish Civil War broke out between the generally right-wing government supporters and left-wing rebels. The war ended with the victory of the government forces, supported by Germany, during the inter-war period, the relationship between Finland and the Soviet Union was tense. Some elements in Finland maintained the dream of Greater Finland which included the Soviet-controlled part of Karelia, the proximity of the Finnish border to Leningrad caused worry in the Soviet leadership. On 23 August 1939 Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, a secret clause of this agreement marked Finland as part of the Soviet sphere of influence. On 12 October the Soviet Union started negotiations with Finland concerning parts of Finnish territory, the Karelian Isthmus, the Gulf of Finland islands, on 26 November the Soviet Union accused the Finnish army of shelling the village of Mainila. It was subsequently found that the Soviets had in fact shelled their own village to create an excuse to withdraw from their pact with Finland. On 30 November the Soviet Union attacked Finland, the attack was denounced by the League of Nations and, as a result, the Soviet Union was expelled from that body on 14 December. The Winter War, fought between Finland and the Soviet Union, was an invasion by the Soviet Union, the aim of the invasion was to annex Finland whole into the Soviet Union. The very first attack on November 30,1939 was a bombardment of the city of Helsinki. This put the Finnish people on the defensive without having to make any decision, the Soviet invasion was intended to be a liberation of the Red Finns, with the eventual annexation of Finland into the USSR. To this end, a government, the Finnish Democratic Republic was established in Terijoki under the leadership of the exiled O. W. Kuusinen. Strategic goals of the Red Army included cutting Finland in half and capturing Petsamo in the north, the Soviets had been building their forces up on the border for several months during the previous negotiations

33.
Winter War
–
The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, the League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country, the Soviets possessed more than three times as many soldiers as the Finns, thirty times as many aircraft, and a hundred times as many tanks. The Red Army, however, had been crippled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalins Great Purge of 1937. With more than 30,000 of its officers executed or imprisoned, including most of those of the highest ranks, because of these factors, and high morale in the Finnish forces, Finland repelled Soviet attacks for several months, much longer than the Soviets expected. However, after reorganization and adoption of different tactics, the renewed Soviet offensive overcame Finnish defenses at the borders, hostilities ceased in March 1940 with the signing of the Moscow Peace Treaty. Finland ceded territory representing 11% of its area and 13% of its economy to the Soviet Union. Soviet losses were heavy, and the international reputation suffered. While the Soviet Union did not conquer all Finland, Soviet gains exceeded their pre-war demands and they gained substantial territory along Lake Ladoga, providing a buffer for Leningrad, and territory in northern Finland. Finland retained its sovereignty and enhanced its international reputation, the end of the war cancelled the Franco-British plan to send troops to Finland through northern Scandinavia. One of the goals of the projected Franco-British operation had been to take control of northern Swedens iron ore. For this reason it was also a factor in the launching of Operation Weserübung, Nazi Germanys invasion of Denmark. The poor performance of the Red Army encouraged Hitler to think that an attack on the Soviet Union would be successful, until the beginning of the 19th century, Finland constituted the eastern part of the Kingdom of Sweden. In 1809, to protect their capital, Saint Petersburg. While abortive because of Russias internal strife, these attempts ruined Russias relations with the Finns, the new Bolshevik Russian government was weak, and with the threat of civil war looming Soviet Russia recognized the new Finnish government just three weeks after the declaration of independence. Sovereignty was fully achieved in May 1918 after a civil war. Finland joined the League of Nations in 1920, from which it sought security guarantees, nevertheless, the government of Sweden carefully avoided committing itself to Finnish foreign policy. Another Finnish military policy was the top secret military cooperation between Finland and Estonia, the 1920s and early 1930s were a politically unstable time in Finland

34.
Continuation War
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The Continuation War consisted of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began shortly after the end of the Winter War, in the Soviet Union, the war was considered part of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its war efforts on the Eastern Front. Acts of war between the Soviet Union and Finland recommenced on 22 June 1941, the day Germany launched its invasion of the Soviet Union, open warfare began with a Soviet air offensive on 25 June. Subsequent Finnish operations undid its post-Winter War concessions to the Soviet Union on the Karelian Isthmus and Ladoga Karelia, on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finns halted their offensive 30 km from Leningrad, at the pre-World War II border between the Soviet Union and Finland. Finnish forces did not participate in the siege of Leningrad directly, in 1944, Soviet air forces conducted air raids on Helsinki and other major Finnish cities. A ceasefire ended hostilities on 5 September and was followed by the Moscow Armistice on 19 September, the 1947 Paris peace treaty concluded the war formally. Finland ceded Pechengsky District to the Soviets, leased Porkkala peninsula to them, shortly afterward, Germany invaded Poland and as a result the United Kingdom and France declared war against Germany. The Soviet Union invaded eastern Poland on 17 September, next, Moscow demanded that the Baltic states allow the establishment of Soviet military bases and the stationing of troops on their soil. The Baltic governments accepted these ultimatums, signing corresponding agreements in September and October 1939, the Finnish government refused, and the Red Army attacked Finland on 30 November 1939. Condemnation of the Soviets by the League of Nations and by all over the world had no effect on Soviet policy. International help for Finland was planned, but very little actual help materialized, the Moscow Peace Treaty, which was signed on 12 March 1940, ended the Winter War. By the terms of the treaty, Finland lost one eleventh of its national territory, however, Finland had avoided having the Soviet Union annex the whole country. Finlands foreign policy had been based on multilateral guarantees for support from the League of Nations, Finnish public opinion favored the reconquest of Finnish Karelia. Finlands government declared the countrys defense to be its first priority, Finland purchased and received donations of war material during and immediately after the Winter War. On Finlands southern frontier the Soviet Union had acquired a base in Hanko near the capital Helsinki. Finland also had to resettle some 420,000 evacuees from the lost territories, to ensure the supply of food, it was necessary to clear new land for the evacuees to cultivate. This was facilitated by the Rapid Settlement Act, the Finnish leadership wanted to preserve the spirit of unanimity that was commonly felt throughout the country during the Winter War

35.
Lapland War
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The Lapland War was fought between Finland and Germany from September 1944 to April 1945 in Finlands northernmost Lapland Province. For the Finns, this was a conflict, much like the Continuation War. The Finnish Army was required to demobilise their forces while at the time fighting to force the German Army to leave Finland. Germany and Finland had been at war with the Soviet Union since June 1941, however, as early as the summer of 1943, the German High Command began making plans for the eventuality that Finland might make a separate peace agreement with the Soviet Union. The Germans planned to withdraw their forces northward in order to shield the nickel mines near Petsamo, during the winter of 1943–1944, the Germans improved the roads from northern Norway to northern Finland by extensive use of prisoner of war labour in certain areas. Casualties among these POWs were high, in part because many of them had been captured in southern Europe and were still in summer uniform. In addition, the Germans surveyed defensive positions and planned to evacuate as much material as possible from the region, on 9 April 1944, the German withdrawal was named Operation Birke. In June 1944 the Germans started constructing fortifications against an advance from the south. The accidental death of Generaloberst Eduard Dietl on 23 June 1944 brought Generaloberst Lothar Rendulic to the command of the 20th Mountain Army, a change of Finnish leadership in early August 1944 led the Germans to believe that Finland would try to achieve a separate agreement with the Soviet Union. The Finnish announcement of the ceasefire triggered frantic efforts in the German 20th Mountain Army, large amounts of materiel were evacuated from southern Finland and harsh punishments were set for any hindering of the withdrawal. Finnish forces, which included the 3rd, 6th, and 11th divisions, on 2 September 1944, after the Finns informed the Germans of the cease fire between Finland and the Soviet Union, the Germans started seizing Finnish shipping. However, since this action resulted in a Finnish decision to not allow ships to sail from Finland to Germany, after the order was called off, the Finns, in turn, allowed Finnish tonnage to be used to hasten the German evacuations. On 15 September 1944, the German Navy tried to seize Hogland island in Operation Tanne Ost, in response, Finland immediately removed its shipping from the joint evacuation operation. The last German convoy departed from Kemi on 21 September 1944 and was escorted by both submarines and in addition by German cruisers. After the landing attempt, a Finnish coastal artillery fort prevented German netlayers from passing into the Baltic Sea at Utö on 15 September, however, on 16 September, a German naval detachment consisting of the heavy cruiser Prinz Eugen escorted by five destroyers, arrived at Utö. The German cruiser stayed out of range of the Finnish 152 mm guns, in order to avoid bloodshed, the Finns allowed the netlayers to pass. A Finnish landing operation started on 30 September 1944 when three transport ships without escorts departed from Oulu towards Tornio and they arrived on 1 October and managed to disembark their troops without any interference. A second wave of four ships arrived on 2 October and a third wave – three ships strong – managed to disembark with only a ship being lightly damaged by German dive bombers

36.
Coat of arms of Finland
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The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field, the right foreleg replaced with an armoured hand brandishing a sword, trampling on a sabre with the hindpaws. The coat of arms was created around the year 1580. The heraldic lion originated from the Lion of Judea is quite common in Western Europe, in Nordic heraldry, the lion is first found in the coat of arms of Denmark in the later part of the 12th century. The first known use of the lion in Sweden was on the seals of Erik Knutsson and Erik Eriksson. The first king of the Folkunga family, Valdemar Birgersson, also used 3 lions on his seal and this version of the arms was quite similar to the modern coat of arms of Finland, but the lion did not yet brandish any weapon. The grand-ducal coat of arms is thought to have resulted out of a combination of the Göta lion, the result was that the lion brandishes one weapon and treads on another. The best-known version of the coat of arms is found on the tomb of Gustavus I in the Uppsala cathedral. It has been suggested that either Duke John himself, or his brother Eric XIV, was leading the work on the heraldic signs on the tomb. Neither statement can be confirmed, but it is known that Eric XIV showed an interest in heraldry, the monument was commissioned from Guillaume Boyen, a Flemish architect and sculptor who had worked in Sweden. He started on the task in Antwerp in 1562, completing it 10 years later, however, the tomb was not in place in Uppsala until the early 1580s, and the finishing work lasted until 1591. In addition to the arms of Sweden and those of Finland. From Finland they include North and South Finland, as well as Tavastia and Karelia, the purpose of the nine roses remains unknown, but are now mostly considered to be decorative only. They have sometimes claimed to represent the nine historical provinces of Finland. The lion experienced several changes during the 17th century, after Finland had been ceded to Russia, Elias Brenners version of the lion was chosen by the authorities as the model for the new coat of arms of the Grand Duchy of Finland in the Russian Empire. Obviously, any interpretation of the lion as trampling on a Russian sabre had been lost at point in time. During the reform of the Russian official heraldry in 1857, the lion was changed on the initiative of baron Bernhard Karl von Köhne. The sword in the right forepaw had shrunk in size, to the point of resembling a dagger rather than a sword. During the years when the Russian emperors attempted russification of Finland, the use of the arms of Finland increased significantly, the director of the Finnish National Archives, Karl August Bomansson made the first significant study on the arms of Finland in modern times

37.
Geography of Finland
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The geography of Finland differs from that of other Nordic countries. Bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, as well as Sweden, Norway, although other countries have points extending north, virtually all of Finland is north of 60 degrees north latitude. Finlands total area is 337,030 km2, of this area 10% is water, 69% forest, 8% cultivated land and 13% other. Finland is the ninth largest country in Europe after Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkey, France, Ukraine, Spain, Sweden, the most predominant influences on Finlands geography were the continental glaciers that scoured and gouged the countrys surface. When the glaciers receded about 10,000 years ago, they left behind moraines, drumlins, other indications of their presence are the thousands of lakes they helped to form in the southern part of the country. The force of the ice sheets gouged the lake beds. The recession of the glaciers is so recent that modern-day drainage patterns are immature, the direction of glacial advance and recession set the alignment of the lakes and streams in a general northeast to southwest lineation. The two Salpausselkä Ridges, which run parallel to each other about twenty-five kilometres apart, are the terminal moraines, at their greatest height they reach an elevation of about 200 metres, the highest point in southern Finland. As a whole, the shape of Finlands boundaries resembles a figure of a one-armed human. In Finnish, parallels are drawn between the figure and the personification of Finland – Finnish Maiden – and the country as a whole can be referred in the Finnish language by her name. Even in official context the area around Enontekiö in northwestern part of the country between Sweden and Norway can be referred to as the Arm. After the Continuation War Finland lost major land areas to Russia in the Moscow Armistice of 1944, many countries of the world can be divided into distinct geographic regions, in each of which some physical characteristic is dominant, almost to the exclusion of others. In Finland, the physical characteristics are common to each of the four geographic regions into which the country is divided. Regional differences in Finland lie, therefore, in combinations of physical qualities. In archipelago Finland, rock and water are dominant, coastal Finland consists of broad clay plains where agriculture plays a leading role. The interior Finnish lake district supports extensive forests, upland Finland is covered by Arctic scrub. Finland lacks true arctic tundra but has alpine tundra on top of fells, archipelago Finland, consisting of thousands of islands and skerries, extends from the southwestern coast out into the Baltic Sea. It includes the strategically significant Åland Islands, positioned at the entrance to the Gulf of Bothnia, after World War I, both Finland and Sweden laid claim to the islands, which are culturally more Swedish than Finnish

38.
List of cities and towns in Finland
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The following is a list of towns in Finland. In the year 1977 the juridical difference between cities, towns and municipalities were removed, today only municipalities are recognized, some of which are commonly referred to as towns. Municipality can decide itself, whether it uses municipality or city / town designation, also, even the centre or conurbation of the city itself may not be so urban itself. A simple, independent decision in the council is required to change the name of a rural municipality into a city. For towns founded before the 1960s the list includes the year the town was chartered, a lot of municipal mergers have been made in Finland, which also makes it difficult to define city, because in merger, while population increases a bit, population density decreases. In Finland, the municipality area along its borders is officially considered the city or town area. From there on, villages, possible conurbation areas, and administrative area are distinguished quite accurately in official concepts. List of cities List of urban areas in Finland by population Media related to Cities in Finland at Wikimedia Commons Map at Archive. is

39.
List of islands of Finland
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Within Finlands borders there are 789 islands of over 1 km2 area. Most of these are inhabited, and with a connection to the mainland. There are 455 permanently inhabited islands in Finland with no connection to mainland. Many other islands are used nearly permanently for recreational purposes, smaller isles number in tens of thousands. List of islands in the Baltic Sea List of islands Archipelago Sea

40.
Provinces of Finland
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Between 1634 and 2009, Finland was administered as several provinces. The provincial authorities were part of the governments executive branch. The system was created in 1634. Its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from twelve to six and this effectively made them purely administrative units, as linguistic and cultural boundaries no longer followed the borders of the provinces. The provinces were abolished at the end of 2009. Each province was led by an appointed by the president on the recommendation of the cabinet. Provinces governed only state offices, such as the police, most services, such as healthcare and maintenance of local streets, were and remain today the responsibility of municipalities of Finland. Often Swedish-language municipalities cooperate even if they do not share a border, in 1634, administratives provinces were formed in Sweden, and therefore in Finland, which was a part of Sweden until 1809. Five of the provinces covered what is now Finland, some of these also covered parts of what are now Russia, the exact division of the country into provinces has fluctuated over time. The boundaries of the old provinces partly survive in telephone area codes, ^ Some duties, which in Mainland Finland are handled by the provinces, are on the Åland Islands transferred to the autonomous Government of Åland. ^ The Åland Islands are unilingually Swedish, the provinces were abolished altogether effective 1 January 2010. Six Regional State Administrative Agencies – in addition to the Government of Åland – are primarily responsible for law enforcement and they are each responsible for one or more of regions of Finland, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment. Provincial Governors of Finland Regions of Finland Historical provinces of Finland Subdivisions of the Nordic countries ISO 3166-2, FI State Provincial Offices – Official site

41.
Regions of Finland
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Finland comprises 19 regions called maakunta in Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The regions are governed by councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are planning and development of enterprise. In addition, the health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Currently, the region where a popular election is held for the council is Kainuu. Other regional councils are elected by municipal councils, each municipality sending representatives in proportion to its population and they are each responsible for one or more of regions of Finland, and include offices of the Ministries of Employment and the Economy, Transport and Communications and Environment. The Finnish Defence Forces regional offices are responsible for the defence preparations. Regions represent dialectal, cultural and economic variations better than the former provinces, historically, regions are divisions of historical provinces of Finland, areas which represent dialects and culture more accurately

Police of Finland
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The Police of Finland is a government agency responsible for general police and law enforcement matters in Finland. The Police of Finland is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior and consists of the National Police Board, on October 1,2003, the Public Order Act went into effect, standardizing public ordinances throughout the country. The offi

1.
A Finnish police van featuring vanity plates promoting the common European emergency telephone number 1-1-2

Vanity plates
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The owner of the vehicle pays extra money to have his own choice of numbers or letters, usually portrays a recognizable phrase, slogan, or abbreviation on their plate. Sales of vanity plates are often a significant source of revenue for North American provincial, in some jurisdictions, such as the Canadian province of British Columbia, vanity plate

2.
A vanity plate in Amarillo, Texas, referencing the Star Wars character Chewbacca

3.
Massachusetts vanity plate on a parked motorcycle in Boston

4.
Self-referencing vanity plate

Finnish Border Guard
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The Finnish Border guard is the national security agency responsible for enforcing the security of Finlands borders. The Border Guard has police and investigative powers in immigration matters, the Border Guard has search and rescue duties, both maritime and inland. The Guard operates SAR helicopters that are used in inland SAR, in assistance of a

Finnish Defence Forces
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The Finnish Defence Forces are responsible for the defence of Finland. A universal male conscription is in place, under which all men above 18 years of age serve for 165,255 or 347 days, alternative non-military service and volunteer service by women are possible. Finland is the only non-NATO EU country bordering Russia, finlands official policy st

1.
White Guard in Nummi. White Guards were appointed as the official military forces of the Finnish government on 25 January 1918.

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The tower and the lion is the symbol of the Finnish Defence Forces.

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Finnish troops equipped with Panzerfaust antitank weapons walk past a destroyed Soviet T-34 tank during the Battle of Tali-Ihantala. The lead soldier is also armed with a Suomi KP/-31.

Finland
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Finland, officially the Republic of Finland, is a sovereign state in Northern Europe. A peninsula with the Gulf of Finland to the south and the Gulf of Bothnia to the west, the country has borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north. Estonia is south of the country across the Gulf of Finland, Finland is a Nordic country situated in th

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Hakkapeliitta featured on a 1940 Finnish stamp

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Flag

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Now lying within Helsinki, Suomenlinna is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of an inhabited 18th century sea fortress built on six islands. It is one of Finland's most popular tourist attractions.

National Bureau of Investigation (Finland)
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The National Bureau of Investigation, headquartered in the city of Vantaa since 1994, is a nationwide law enforcement agency in Finland. The NBI is also responsible for taking measures provided in the Act on Detecting and Preventing Money Laundering, when necessary, the NBI supports the local police in the first steps of homicide investigations and

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Emblem of the Police of Finland

Finnish Security Intelligence Service
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Finnish Security Intelligence Service is the intelligence agency of Finland in charge of national security. The service formerly used the English title Finnish Security Police, the agencys staff is composed of 220 law enforcement agents with advanced training. It specialises in preventing security threats and participates in protecting the parliame

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Supo head office in Helsinki

Undercover
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Traditionally, it is a technique employed by law enforcement agencies or private investigators, and a person who works in such a role is commonly referred to as an undercover agent. At the end of 1811, Vidocq set up an informal plainclothes unit, the Brigade de la Sûreté, the Sûreté initially had eight, then twelve, and, in 1823, twenty employees.

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Portrait of Eugène François Vidocq, pioneering criminologist and the founder of one of the first undercover police units in the early 19th-century.

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Special Branch detectives on an undercover operation at the London Docks, 1911.

Sting operation
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In law enforcement, a sting operation is a deceptive operation designed to catch a person committing a crime. Even mass media journalists resort to sting operations to record video, sting operations are common in many countries, such as the United States, but are not permitted in some countries, such as Sweden. Law-enforcement may have to be not to

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NCIS preparations for an MDMA sting

Provost (military police)
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Provosts are military police whose duties are policing solely within the Armed Forces, as opposed to Gendarmerie duties in the civilian population. However, many countries use their gendarmerie for provost duties, as with all official terms, some countries have specific official terminology which differs from the exact linguistic meaning. The head

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Australian Army Land Rover and two Military Police motorcycles

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A Military Police NCO from Guatemala with a Galil rifle.

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The "MP" patch identifies this woman as being a member of the New Zealand Defence Force Military Police.

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The SAFMPU providing security coverage at the Padang in Singapore during the National Day Parade in 2000.

Military police
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Military police are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In the Second World War, the police of the German Army still used a metal gorget as an emblem. Naval police members are sometimes called masters-at-arms and shore patrol, Military police in Brazil has two meanings. There are provost corps for each of t

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India's Corps of Military Police personnel patrolling the Wagah border crossing in the Punjab in a Maruti Gypsy.

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A Malaysian military policeman patrolling the House of Parliament with a Honda ST1300 during the nation's 52nd Independence Day celebration.

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The Malaysian Royal Military Police Corps assisted Malaysian civil police in providing security at Parliament Square in Kuala Lumpur during a 52nd Independence Day parade in 2009.

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South Korean Military Police at the Joint Security Area in 2007.

Wiretaps
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Telephone tapping is the monitoring of telephone and Internet conversations by a third party, often by covert means. The wire tap received its name because, historically, the connection was an actual electrical tap on the telephone line. Legal wiretapping by a government agency is also called lawful interception, passive wiretapping monitors or rec

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Telephone line control device "Jitka", used in late 1960s by Czechoslovakian StB to signal line occupancy, and connect a recorder

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A telephone recording adapter (in-line tap). The phone jack connects to the wall socket while the phone being monitored is connected to the adapter's socket. The audio plug connects to the recording device (computer, tape recorder, etc.).

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CrimethInc. sticker on a telephone warning users of phone tapping by the U.S. government.

Patria Pasi
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The Patria Pasi is a Finnish made six-wheeled armoured personnel carrier originally designed for Finnish Defence Forces. The first version was produced in 1983 and serial production began in 1984 and it was designed to operate with ease of use, simple structure and low-cost maintenance. The basic appearance and configuration of Patria Pasi is simil

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Norwegian XA-185

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An Estonian XA-180 in Afghanistan.

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A Sisu Pasi in use by the Finnish police during the Kauhajoki school shooting.

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A Swedish XA-203 of South Scania Regiment (P7), Scania, Sweden.

Kauhajoki school shooting
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The Kauhajoki school shooting occurred on 23 September 2008, at the Seinäjoki University of Applied Sciences in Western Finland. The gunman, 22-year-old student Matti Juhani Saari, shot and fatally injured ten people with a Walther P22 semi-automatic pistol and he died a few hours later in Tampere University Hospital. One woman was injured but was

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A scene of the Kauhajoki vocational college campus a few hours after the shooting.

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A .22 LR Walther P22 pistol, of the type used by Saari during the attack

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An YLE broadcasting van near the school buildings.

Finnish language
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Finnish is the language spoken by the majority of the population in Finland and by ethnic Finns outside Finland. It is one of the two languages of Finland and an official minority language in Sweden. In Sweden, both standard Finnish and Meänkieli, a Finnish dialect, are spoken, the Kven language, a dialect of Finnish, is spoken in Northern Norway b

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Mikael Agricola, a 19th-century drawing by Albert Edelfelt

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Official language.

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Elias Lönnrot as depicted in a 19th-century caricature – Lönnrot made several journeys to Karelia and Eastern Finland to collect folklore, from which he compiled the Kalevala

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Suomalaisen Sana-Lugun Coetus (1745) by Daniel Juslenius was the first comprehensive dictionary of the Finnish language with 16,000 entries.

Crime in Finland
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Crime in Finland is combated by the Finnish police and other agencies. In 2015, Finland had a rate of 1.28 per 100,000 population. There were a total of 70 murders in Finland in 2015, half of murders involve men of marginalized groups in heavy drinking situations. Thirty-five percent of homicides are committed by members, and ten percent of homicid

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A Finnish policeman directing traffic in Turku.

Police brutality
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Police brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct which involves undue violence by police members. Widespread police brutality exists in countries and territories, even those that prosecute it. Although illegal, it can be performed under the color of law, the term police brutality was in use in the American press as early as 1872, when

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Screenshots of Rodney King lying down and being beaten by LAPD officers

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A protester shows his wounded eye. Police brutality was one of the main issues arising from the 2013 protests in Turkey.

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Police arrest a man during the Watts Riots, August 1965

Judicial system of Finland
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Under the Constitution of Finland, everyone is entitled to have their case heard by a court or an authority appropriately and without undue delay. This is achieved through the system of Finland. The Finnish legal system originated during the period before Swedish rule, the traditional system of tings for criminal cases and civil disputes continued

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The courtroom of Raasepori District Court

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The courthouse of Supreme Administrative Court of Finland

History of Finland
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The land area that now makes up Finland was settled immediately after the last ice age, which ended in 9000 BC. Finnish nationalism emerged, focused on Finnish cultural traditions, including music and—especially—the highly distinctive language, the catastrophic Finnish famine of 1866–1868 was followed by eased economic regulations and extensive emi

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Ritual, stone age, clay, bear paws from the Åland islands.

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The runestone Gs 13 documents an early 11th-century Swedish Viking who died in Finland, perhaps during a raid.

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A reconstruction of a 12th-century Perniö costume

Early Finnish wars
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Early Finnish wars are scattered descriptions of conflicts involving Finnish tribes or Finland prior to the gradual Swedish conquest of Finland in 13th and 14th centuries. The most important sources are Novgorod First Chronicle, Primary Chronicle, fortifications are known from Finland already from the Stone Age onwards. In Yli-Ii by the Iijoki rive

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King Erik Bloodaxe is instigated by his wife Gunnhild to kill the Sámi wizards (illustration by Christian Krohg), an incident of doubtful historical validity, but reflecting an early history of prejudice and conflict

Finland under Swedish rule
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Finland under Swedish rule refers to the period in the history of Finland when it was a part of Sweden. It has traditionally been considered as starting from 1150, when according to the legend of St. Erik the king Eric IX of Sweden, the actual starting point of the Swedish rule is however under a large amount of uncertainty and controversy. Clear h

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The bishop Henry and Lalli

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Magnus Ericson on his throne.

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The older part of the Turku Castle viewed from the harbour.

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Queen Margaret I

Cudgel War
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The Cudgel War was a 1596/97 peasant uprising in the kingdom of Sweden. The yeomen also had swords, some firearms and two cannons at their disposal and their opponents, the troops of Clas Eriksson Fleming, were professional, heavily armed and armoured men-at-arms. An uprising began on Christmas Eve 1595 and was initially successful, in December 159

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A memorial plaque dedicated to the fallen peasants

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A Cudgel War memorial

Great Northern War
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The Great Northern War was a conflict in which a coalition led by the Tsardom of Russia successfully contested the supremacy of the Swedish Empire in Central, Northern, and Eastern Europe. The initial leaders of the alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway. George I of Great Britain and of Brunswick-Lüneburg joined the coalit

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Clockwise from top: Battle of Narva, Battle of Düna, Battle of Poltava, Battle of Gangut, Battle of Gadebusch

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History of Scandinavia

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The bombardment of Copenhagen, 1700

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Battle of Riga, the first major battle of the Swedish invasion of Poland, 1701

Finnish War
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The Finnish War was fought between the Kingdom of Sweden and the Russian Empire from February 1808 to September 1809. As a result of the war, the third of Sweden was established as the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire. Other notable effects were the Swedish parliaments adoption of a new constitution and the establishment

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Map of notable locations in Finland during the war

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Gustav IV Adolf, King of Sweden

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Arrest of Gustav IV.

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Last battle of the war at Ratan near Umeå in Swedish Västerbotten

Grand Duchy of Finland
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The Grand Duchy of Finland was the predecessor state of modern Finland. It existed between 1809 and 1917 as an part of the Russian Empire and was ruled by the Russian Emperor as Grand Duke. The new title Grand Duke of Finland did not result in any Finnish autonomy, during the next two centuries, the title was used by some of Johns successors on the

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The Provinces of Finland, about 1900.

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The Grand Duchy of Finland in 1914.

Russification of Finland
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The two Russification campaigns evoked widespread Finnish resistance, starting with petitions and escalating to strikes, passive resistance and eventually active resistance. Finnish opposition to Russification was one of the factors that ultimately led to Finlands declaration of independence in 1917. Russia attacked Sweden in 1808, in what became k

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Edvard Isto 's painting Attack (1899) symbolizes Finnish resistance to Russification. The two-headed eagle of Russia is tearing away the law book from the Finnish Maiden's arms.

October Revolution
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It took place with an armed insurrection in Petrograd on 25 October 1917. During this time, urban workers began to organize into councils wherein revolutionaries criticized the provisional government and this immediately initiated the establishment of the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the worlds first self-proclaimed socialist state

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Red Guards at Vulkan factory in 1917

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Bolshevik (1920), by Boris Kustodiev

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A scene from the July Days. The army has just opened fire on street protesters.

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Cruiser Aurora

Finnish Declaration of Independence
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The Finnish Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Parliament of Finland on 6 December 1917. Declaring the independence was only part of the process leading to independence of Finland. There were negotiations between the Russian Provisional Government and Finnish authorities, at the time of the vote it was believed that the Provisional Gove

Finnish Civil War
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The Finnish Civil War concerned leadership and control of Finland during the transition from a Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire to an independent state. The conflict formed a part of the national, political, the war was fought between the Reds, led by the Social Democratic Party and the Whites, conducted by the non-socialist, conservative-led sena

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Tampere 's civilian buildings destroyed in the civil war.

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On strike in Helsinki, 1917. Workers demanded food and a complete shifting of legislative power from the Russian government to the Finnish parliament.

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Revolutionary Russian servicemen of various political groups added to the feeling of instability during 1917.

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White Guard in Nummi. White Guards were appointed the White Army of Finland on 25 January 1918.

Heimosodat
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The term in Finnish historiography heimosodat has been translated literally into English as Kindred Nations Wars, Wars for kindred peoples or Kinship Wars, specifically Finnic kinship. It is sometimes translated as Tribal Wars. It refers to conflicts in territories inhabited by other Baltic Finnic peoples, many of the volunteer soldiers were inspir

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A 1922 Bolshevik propaganda poster: "We don't want war, but we will defend the Soviets!"

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Finnish volunteers arrive in Tallinn, Estonia in December 1918 during Estonian War of Independence

Finland's language strife
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The language strife was one of the major conflicts of Finlands national history and domestic politics. The strife began in the half of the 19th century. Immigration of Swedish peasants to Finlands coastal regions also boosted the status of Swedish, as a result of the Finnish War, Sweden ceded Finland to Russia in 1809. Finland became a grand duchy

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A set of graves in Tampere, showing the Swedish surname 'Kyander' as well as the Fennicized 'Kiianmies'.

Military history of Finland during World War II
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Finland participated in three major conflicts during World War II. The first two––the defensive Winter War in 1939–1940, and the Continuation War alongside the Axis Powers in 1941–1944––were waged against the Soviet Union. The third one, the Lapland War in 1944–1945, followed the signing of an agreement with the Allied Powers. As a result of territ

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Finnish ski troops in Northern Finland in January 1940.

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First phase of the Winter war

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The village of Ivalo destroyed by Germans during the Lapland War.

Winter War
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The Winter War was a military conflict between the Soviet Union and Finland in 1939–1940. It began with the Soviet invasion of Finland on 30 November 1939, the League of Nations deemed the attack illegal and expelled the Soviet Union from the League on 14 December 1939. Finland refused and the USSR invaded the country, the Soviets possessed more th

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A Finnish machine gun crew during the Winter War

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Finnish ski troops in Northern Finland in January 1940

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Lieutenant Aarne Juutilainen became a national hero for his defence of Finland during the Battle of Kollaa.

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A Finnish soldier with an M-26 machine gun

Continuation War
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The Continuation War consisted of hostilities between Finland and the Soviet Union from 1941 to 1944. The Continuation War began shortly after the end of the Winter War, in the Soviet Union, the war was considered part of the Great Patriotic War. Germany regarded its operations in the region as part of its war efforts on the Eastern Front. Acts of

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Finnish StuG III Ausf. G assault guns on parade. The swastika in front of the tank was a longstanding emblem of the Finnish military, and was used independently of Nazi German forces.

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Finnish ski troops in Northern Finland on 12 January 1940

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Finnish flags are at half-mast after the publication of the peace terms

Lapland War
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The Lapland War was fought between Finland and Germany from September 1944 to April 1945 in Finlands northernmost Lapland Province. For the Finns, this was a conflict, much like the Continuation War. The Finnish Army was required to demobilise their forces while at the time fighting to force the German Army to leave Finland. Germany and Finland had

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German withdrawal from Finland, 1944

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Germans put up a sign in Muonio that reads "as a thanks for not demonstrating a brotherhood of arms".

Coat of arms of Finland
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The coat of arms of Finland is a crowned lion on a red field, the right foreleg replaced with an armoured hand brandishing a sword, trampling on a sabre with the hindpaws. The coat of arms was created around the year 1580. The heraldic lion originated from the Lion of Judea is quite common in Western Europe, in Nordic heraldry, the lion is first fo

Geography of Finland
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The geography of Finland differs from that of other Nordic countries. Bordering the Baltic Sea, Gulf of Bothnia, and Gulf of Finland, as well as Sweden, Norway, although other countries have points extending north, virtually all of Finland is north of 60 degrees north latitude. Finlands total area is 337,030 km2, of this area 10% is water, 69% fore

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Satellite image

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Map of Finland – click to enlarge

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Effects of the last ice age: glacial striations in a country without glaciers.

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Nature of Viitasaari

List of cities and towns in Finland
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The following is a list of towns in Finland. In the year 1977 the juridical difference between cities, towns and municipalities were removed, today only municipalities are recognized, some of which are commonly referred to as towns. Municipality can decide itself, whether it uses municipality or city / town designation, also, even the centre or con

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Helsinki, Capital of Finland

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Espoo

3.
Tampere

4.
Vantaa

List of islands of Finland
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Within Finlands borders there are 789 islands of over 1 km2 area. Most of these are inhabited, and with a connection to the mainland. There are 455 permanently inhabited islands in Finland with no connection to mainland. Many other islands are used nearly permanently for recreational purposes, smaller isles number in tens of thousands. List of isla

Provinces of Finland
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Between 1634 and 2009, Finland was administered as several provinces. The provincial authorities were part of the governments executive branch. The system was created in 1634. Its makeup was changed drastically in 1997, when the number of the provinces was reduced from twelve to six and this effectively made them purely administrative units, as lin

Regions of Finland
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Finland comprises 19 regions called maakunta in Finnish and landskap in Swedish. The regions are governed by councils, which serve as forums of cooperation for the municipalities of a region. The main tasks of the regions are planning and development of enterprise. In addition, the health services are usually organized on the basis of regions. Curr

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Regions of Finland (the borders of historical provinces are shown in grey)

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Letter on Finland’s devaluation in 1949 from Bohumil Sucharda, who represented the countries of Eastern Europe and Finland on the IMF Executive Board, to the Bank of Finland Governor Sakari Tuomioja. Bank of Finland archives.

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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (September 2007)

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A "municipal home" for those unable to provide for themselves in Haapajärvi in pre-war Finland. The receivers of this public service, a precursor to modern social security, included many of the elderly, as private pensions were very uncommon, disabled, single parents, unemployed and their families.

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Finland shares with the other Nordic countries the Nordic model of social security, the hallmark of which is its comprehensiveness.

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An office of the Social Insurance Institution (KELA) in Espoo. Its original function was as the provider of national retirement benefits. Later its functions have been expanded to include unemployment insurance and student grants among other things.

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Aid to families takes many forms. All parents receive information, support, health and parenting advice, vaccinations and such before and after the child's birth from the state-run child health clinics. They also monitor the physical, mental and social condition of children and gather data for public health purposes.

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Karelian pasty (karjalanpiirakka) is a traditional Finnish dish made from a thin rye crust with a filling of rice. Butter, often mixed with boiled egg (eggbutter or munavoi), is spread over the hot pastries before eating.

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Lingonberries are common throughout Finland

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Fried vendace (Coregonus albula) is a summer-time delicacy in Finland. The fish are fried, served, and eaten whole, usually accompanied with garlic sauce.

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Fried Baltic herring is a popular and wholesome Finnish dish. It is usually accompanied with boiled or mashed potatoes.